The Effect of Rotation on Radiation from Stars. I. Properties of the Continuum

Using a uniform series of interior models, the effect of rigid body rotation on the continuum radiation from homogeneous main-sequence stars in the mass range 1.5-8 Mo is calculated. Continuous energy distributions in the range 1350-10000 A are listed for various rotational velocities and directions of obser- vation. Results are shown to be in qualitative agreement with the available observational evidence though the predicted effects are, in general, found to be too small For these models, the maximum spread in the main sequence is found to be ~O 7 mag at a given color; the importance of the rotational spread in the two-color diagram and in a plot of c1 - (b - y) is also discussed