Characterizing the red optical sky background fluctuations from narrow-band imaging

The detection and characterization of the physical properties of very distant galaxies will be one the prominent science case of all future Extremely Large Telescopes, including the 39m E-ELT. Multi-Object Spectroscopic instruments are potentially very important tools for studying these objects, and in particular fiber-based concepts. However, detecting and studying such faint and distant sources will require subtraction of the sky background signal (i.e., between OH airglow lines) with an accuracy of ~1%. This requires a precise and accurate knowledge of the sky background temporal and spatial fluctuations. Using FORS2 narrow-band filter imaging data, we are currently investigating what are the fluctuations of the sky background at ~9000A. We present preliminary results of sky background fluctuations from this study over spatial scales reaching ~4 arcmin, as well as first glimpses into the temporal variations of such fluctuations over timescales of the order of the hour. This study (and other complementary on-going studies) will be essential in designing the next-generation fiber-fed instruments for the E-ELT.
Comment: To be published in Proc SPIE 8446: Ground-based & Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy IV; 12 pages, 3 tables, 8 figures