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Sky! Sky!

hawcheng wrote on Apr 22, 2010

If there is no moonlight, how much variation in the sky brightness for a given field can I expect? I have 40 exposures of the same field taken across a year, and after accounting for exposure time differences, I'm still finding the sky level to vary by as much as 50%.

I know this isn't a question specific to IRAF, but since this is such a community of astronomy experts, I thought I'd throw it out there. :)

H.J. van Heerden wrote on Apr 22, 2010

Sky brightness may also change due to weather conditions and/or light pollution.

High cirrus clouds that might be invisible to the eye can still reflect significant enough amounts of light to vary the sky background. If possible - check weather data for the specific nights in question - barometric pressure as well as dew point temperature - that will tell you the amount of moisture in the atmosphere.

Regards
Pat

Last post on Apr 22, 2010