Absolute magnitudes of stars - Astronomy

VizieR is an online source for all sorts of astronomical data published in scientific papers. As you mentioned, The HIPPARCOS catalogue contains visual magnitude data.

1. Open the query page for the main HIPPARCOS catalogue


2. Select the fields you want (defaults are ok for you)


3. Hit submit to see the results


4. You can limit the number of results and format under Preferences on the left

This table gives you the measured visual magnitude, i.e. the Apparent Magnitude ($m_V$, V column). To convert that into Absolute Magnitude ($M_V$) you need to know the distance to the star. This can be calculated using the Parallax field (Plx column).

Here's the formula for you:

$$M_V = m_V + 5 * log_{10}( Plx / 100 )$$

You can easily dump the data into Excel or something, put a formula into an extra column and calculate the Absolute Magnitude.