Night sky photometry and spectroscopy performed at the Vienna University Observatory

Autor(en)
Johannes Puschnig, Thomas Posch, Stefan Uttenthaler
Abstrakt

We present night sky brightness measurements performed at the Vienna University Observatory and at the Leopold-Figl-Observatorium für Astrophysik, which is located about 35 km to the southwest of Vienna. The measurements have been performed with Sky Quality Meters made by Unihedron. They cover a time span of roughly one year and have been carried out every night, yielding a luminance value every 7 s and thus delivering a large amount of data. In this paper, the level of skyglow in Vienna, which ranges from 15 to 19.25 magSQM arcsec−2 is presented for the very first time in a systematic way. We discuss the influence of different environmental conditions on the night sky brightness and implications for human vision. We show that the circalunar rhythm of night sky brightness is almost extinguished at our observatory due to light pollution.
Additionally, we present spectra of the night sky in Vienna, taken with a 0.8 m telescope. The goal of these spectroscopic measurements was to identify the main types of light sources and the spectral lines which cause the skyglow in Vienna. It turned out that fluorescent lamps are responsible for the strongest lines of the night sky above Vienna (e.g. lines at 546 nm and at 611 nm).

Organisation(en)
Institut für Astrophysik
Externe Organisation(en)
Unknown External Organisation Unbekannt/undefiniert
Journal
Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer
Band
139
Seiten
64-75
Anzahl der Seiten
12
ISSN
0022-4073
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2013.08.019
Publikationsdatum
05-2014
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
103003 Astronomie, 103004 Astrophysik
Schlagwörter
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Radiation, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Spectroscopy
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/20783e42-7806-4139-906e-9fcd60ecd7ad