Re: CCD Clear Sky Detector Sees Clouds

[Stupendous Man <richmond@a188-l009.rit.edu>]

  Tom asked:

>  OK, I will bite.  Are there any bright IR sources going over between -6 
> and +18?  I will check last night's data to see if I can see them.  What 
> I really want is a map of the sky in IR with say a resolution of 10 
> degrees.  Just the gross features.

  Arne wrote:

> Try IRC +10216 (CW Leo) at
> 09 47 57.38 +13 16 43.7 J2000
> About as bright as they come in the far IR.
> Look at the IRAS maps to see what the sky looks like at your resolution.

  I tried to find a good WWW site to make IRAS maps with Tom's resolution
(10 degrees) and size (90 degrees by 20 or 30 degrees, say), but
couldn't find one.  The closest I could find was SkyView

       http://skyview.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/skvadvanced.pl

which can only handle 50 degrees on a side or so before the results
look pretty bad.  

  From what I can tell, the source Arne mentioned, IRC +10216,
is one of two very bright point sources about 3 degrees apart.
They are the only bright sources within a 20-degree radius;
there is some diffuse emission from the Milky Way, but it's not
very strong.  This position is about 40 degrees above the plane
of the Milky Way, so the background is rather dark.

  If you are seeing IR emission from space, Tom, I'd guess that
you should get a big signal when pointing close to RA = 09:47, Dec = +13,
and a lower signal anywhere else in the neighborhood (say, twenty or
thirty degrees to either side, above or below).

                                        Michael