A Calibrated Measurement of the Near-IR Continuum Sky Brightness Using Magellan/FIRE
We characterize the near-IR sky background from 308 observations with the Folded-port InfraRed Echellette (FIRE) spectrograph at Magellan. A subset of 105 observations selected to minimize lunar and thermal effects gives a continuous, median spectrum from 0.83 to 2.5 μ m, which we present in Table...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
University of Chicago Press, The
2013
|
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77190 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3769-9559 |
| _version_ | 1811080477445980160 |
|---|---|
| author | Simcoe, Robert A. Sullivan, Peter W. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Simcoe, Robert A. Sullivan, Peter W. |
| author_sort | Simcoe, Robert A. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We characterize the near-IR sky background from 308 observations with the Folded-port InfraRed Echellette (FIRE) spectrograph at Magellan. A subset of 105 observations selected to minimize lunar and thermal effects gives a continuous, median spectrum from 0.83 to 2.5 μ m, which we present in Table 2 . The data are used to characterize the broadband continuum emission between atmospheric OH features and correlate its properties with observing conditions such as lunar angle and time of night. We find that the Moon contributes significantly to the inter-line continuum in and bands, whereas the observed -band continuum is dominated by the blended Lorentzian wings of multiple OH line profiles, even at = 6000 . Lunar effects may be mitigated in and through careful scheduling of observations, but the most ambitious near-IR programs will benefit from allocation during dark observing time if those observations are not limited by read noise. In and , our measured continuum exceeds space-based average estimates of the zodiacal light, but it is not readily identified with known terrestrial foregrounds. If further measurements confirm such a fundamental background, it would impact requirements for OH-suppressed instruments operating in this regime. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:32:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/77190 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:32:18Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | University of Chicago Press, The |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/771902022-09-27T20:10:27Z A Calibrated Measurement of the Near-IR Continuum Sky Brightness Using Magellan/FIRE Simcoe, Robert A. Sullivan, Peter W. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research Sullivan, Peter William Simcoe, Robert A. We characterize the near-IR sky background from 308 observations with the Folded-port InfraRed Echellette (FIRE) spectrograph at Magellan. A subset of 105 observations selected to minimize lunar and thermal effects gives a continuous, median spectrum from 0.83 to 2.5 μ m, which we present in Table 2 . The data are used to characterize the broadband continuum emission between atmospheric OH features and correlate its properties with observing conditions such as lunar angle and time of night. We find that the Moon contributes significantly to the inter-line continuum in and bands, whereas the observed -band continuum is dominated by the blended Lorentzian wings of multiple OH line profiles, even at = 6000 . Lunar effects may be mitigated in and through careful scheduling of observations, but the most ambitious near-IR programs will benefit from allocation during dark observing time if those observations are not limited by read noise. In and , our measured continuum exceeds space-based average estimates of the zodiacal light, but it is not readily identified with known terrestrial foregrounds. If further measurements confirm such a fundamental background, it would impact requirements for OH-suppressed instruments operating in this regime. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant AST-0908920) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant AST-1109115) 2013-02-21T20:15:47Z 2013-02-21T20:15:47Z 2012-11 2012-07 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0004-6280 1538-3873 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77190 Sullivan, Peter W., and Robert A. Simcoe. “A Calibrated Measurement of the Near-IR Continuum Sky Brightness Using Magellan/FIRE.” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 124.922 (2012): 1336–1346. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3769-9559 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/668849 Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ application/pdf University of Chicago Press, The arXiv |
| spellingShingle | Simcoe, Robert A. Sullivan, Peter W. A Calibrated Measurement of the Near-IR Continuum Sky Brightness Using Magellan/FIRE |
| title | A Calibrated Measurement of the Near-IR Continuum Sky Brightness Using Magellan/FIRE |
| title_full | A Calibrated Measurement of the Near-IR Continuum Sky Brightness Using Magellan/FIRE |
| title_fullStr | A Calibrated Measurement of the Near-IR Continuum Sky Brightness Using Magellan/FIRE |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Calibrated Measurement of the Near-IR Continuum Sky Brightness Using Magellan/FIRE |
| title_short | A Calibrated Measurement of the Near-IR Continuum Sky Brightness Using Magellan/FIRE |
| title_sort | calibrated measurement of the near ir continuum sky brightness using magellan fire |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77190 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3769-9559 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT simcoeroberta acalibratedmeasurementofthenearircontinuumskybrightnessusingmagellanfire AT sullivanpeterw acalibratedmeasurementofthenearircontinuumskybrightnessusingmagellanfire AT simcoeroberta calibratedmeasurementofthenearircontinuumskybrightnessusingmagellanfire AT sullivanpeterw calibratedmeasurementofthenearircontinuumskybrightnessusingmagellanfire |