To observe the faintest objects in the Universe astronomers require the darkest skies. In the infrared, sensitivities are limited by the thermal emission from the atmosphere and the telescope. By placing a telesocpe in Antarctica, and exploiting the reduced thermal emission and the natural absence of strong airglow emission between 2.3 and 2.5 microns, we can minimize the sky brightness. In this paper, and in an accompanying paper by Nguyen et al. 1996, we provide t"cosmological window". At 2.4 microns the sky flux can be as low as 50 mu-Jy/square arcsecond, up to orders of magnitude lower than the corresponding flux at temperate observatories. We also show that substantial reductions in the background can be achieved throughout the 2.9 - 4.1 um region.
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机译:要观察宇宙中最微弱的天文学家,需要最黑暗的天空。在红外线中,灵敏度受大气和望远镜发出的热量的限制。通过在南极放置一个望远镜,并利用减少的热辐射和2.3至2.5微米之间自然不存在强烈的气辉辐射,我们可以将天空的亮度降至最低。在本文中,以及在Nguyen等人的随附论文中。 1996年,我们提供了“宇宙学之窗”。在2.4微米处,天空通量可以低至50μJ/ y /平方弧秒,比温带观测站的相应通量低几个数量级。我们还表明,可以在整个2.9-4.1 um区域中实现背景的大幅降低。
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