2000/11/01 by I. K. Baldry, J. Bland-Hawthorn, Joss Bland‐Hawthorn · 1 citation
Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Brightness #Geology #History and Developments in Astronomy #Impact of Light on Environment and Health #Moonlight #Optics #Physics #Polarizer #Remote sensing #Sky #Sky brightness #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Twilight #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04117.x
published as Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.322:201,2001 · 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted by MNRAS
arxiv created 2000/11/01 · openalex publication_date 2001/03/01 · arxiv updated 2011/03/10 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
For the majority of optical observing programmes, the sky brightness provides the fundamental limit to signal detection such that the scientific feasibility is largely dictated by the phase of the Moon. Since most observatories do not have the resources to build expensive high-resolution or infrared instruments, they are increasingly at a loss as to how to exploit bright time. We show that, with due consideration of the field and Moon position, it is possible to undertake ‘dark-time’ observing programmes under ‘bright-time’ conditions. Our recommendations are particularly appropriate to all-sky survey programmes. In certain instances, there are gains in observing efficiency with the use of a polarizer, which can significantly reduce the moonlight (or twilight) sky-background flux relative to an extraterrestrial flux. These gains are possible in background-limited cases because the sky background can be highly polarized, caused by scattering, around 90° away from the Moon (or Sun). To take advantage of this, only minor modifications to existing instruments are needed.