Relative Intensities of the Oxygen Lines at 5577 A. and 6300 A. in the Night Sky

Abstract

A PATROL spectrograph on loan from the U.S. International Geophysical Year Committee through the Air Force Cambridge Research Center has been operating at Invercargill since August 13, 1957. This spectrograph scans a 165° strip of sky along the spectral line, the strip of sky in this case lying along the geomagnetic meridian. With exposures of the order of four to five hours on the night sky, using film with Kodak 103a–F(3) emulsion, the spectrograph has recorded the red and green lines of atomic oxygen (6300 A. and 5577 A. of OI). A preliminary analysis of 220 spectra has been carried out for the period August 13–December 31, 1957.