Description
We consider the multiplicity of stellar systems with (combined) magnitude brighter than 6.00 in Hipparcos magnitudes. We identify 4559 such bright systems (including the Sun), and the frequencies of multiplicities 1, 2, ... , 7 are found to be 2718, 1437, 285, 86, 20, 11 and 2. We discuss the uncertainties, which are substantial. We also consider the distributions of periods of orbits and suborbits. We note that for even more restricted set of 478 systems with V_H_<=4.00 , the proportions of higher multiples up to sextuple are progressively larger (213, 179, 54, 19, 8, 5), suggesting substantial incompleteness in even the reasonably well studied larger sample.
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