Abstract
IN August 1933, at the Pic du Midi, we photographed the spectrum of the night sky simultaneously at the horizon and at the zenith. On each of the four spectrograms so obtained, we noticed that the Vegard-Kaplan bands of molecular nitrogen weaken at the zenith and that new radiations can be distinctly seen in their place. For example, the (3 → 15) λ 4531 Vegard-Kaplan band, strong and broad at the horizon, disappears almost completely at the zenith ; while, at λλ 4554 and 4576, we observed radiations the intensity of which remained constant. So we were led to draw up a list, including about thirty radiations the intensity of which does not vary obviously from the zenith to the horizon.
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References
Kaplan, J., NATURE, 52, 1552 (1937).
Dufay, J., C. R. Acad. Sci., 206, 1948 (1938).
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CABANNES, J., DUFAY, J. & GAUZIT, J. CN Bands in the Night Sky Spectrum. Nature 142, 755 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142755a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142755a0
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