Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2015
This paper reviews the main sequences defined by members of the Hyades cluster and by the field stars in the solar neighborhood. For this purpose, the discussion is limited primarily to the stars of the lower portions of the main sequence, especially those of spectral classes K and early M. There are two reasons for emphasis on the faint red dwarf stars. First, the value of a parallax depends on its size or, more accurately, on the error in parallax divided by the parallax itself. Large parallaxes of high precision occur in large numbers only for stars inhabiting the lower main sequence. Furthermore, brighter stars of earlier spectral classes are more likely to be influenced by evolutionary effects which may differ between the Hyades and field stars, and which are difficult to calibrate.