Spectra of the Far–Ultraviolet Background Shortward of 1200 Å from Voyager 2

Abstract

Deep spectra of the far-ultraviolet sky background have been obtained by the Voyager 2 Ultraviolet Spectrometer (UVS) in the 500 to 1200 Å wavelength range. New diffuse galactic background results—particularly in the 900 to 1100 Å region—are presented, which extend the North Galactic Pole results of Holberg (1986) over a range of lower galactic latitudes. Twenty-four lines of sight are analyzed for the presence of residual diffuse continua. Typical upper limits of several hundred photons cm−2 s−1 Å−1 sr−1 are obtained for most lines of sight; however, a faint residual continuum is detected at several low-latitude locations. In Ophiuchus, a diffuse stellarlike continuum is attributed to scattering from interstellar dust.