Night-sky brightness and extinction at Mt Shatdzhatmaz

作者：Kornilov V^*; Kornilov M; Voziakova O; Shatsky N; Safonov B; Gorbunov I; Potanin S; Cheryasov D; Senik V

来源：Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2016, 462(4): 4464-4472.

DOI：10.1093/mnras/stw1839

• atmospheric effects
• site testing
• techniques: photometric

The photometric sky quality of Mt Shatdzhatmaz, the site of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute Caucasian Observatory 2.5-m telescope, is characterized here by the statistics of the night-time sky brightness and extinction. The data were obtained as a by-product of atmospheric optical turbulence measurementswith the MASS (Multi-Aperture Scintillation Sensor) device conducted in 2007-2013. The factors biasing night-sky brightness measurements are considered and a technique to reduce their impact on the statistics is proposed. The single-band photometric estimations provided by MASS are easy to transform to the standard photometric bands. The median moonless night-sky brightness is 22.1, 21.1, 20.3 and 19.0 mag arcsec-2 for the B, V, R and I spectral bands, respectively. The median extinction coefficients for the same photometric bands are 0.28, 0.17, 0.13 and 0.09 mag. The best atmospheric transparency is observed in winter.

• 出版日期2016-11-11