J. L. Weinberg

A Search for Small Scale Structures in the Zodiacal Light

Gegenschein observations from Pioneer 10 were found to have brightness structures with an amplitude of about 10% and a period of several to ten degrees in elongation. A search is made for such structures in high angular resolution ground-based observations from Mt. Haleakala, Hawaii. A new empirical method is used to correct for atmosphere-originated radiation. Background starlight is substracted using Pioneer 10 observations from beyond the asteroid belt. Preliminary analysis of the ground data also indicates the presence of small amplitude structures in the brightness distribution.

Small scale structure in the brightness of the zodiacal light - Ground-based observations

Ground-based observations of the evening zodiacal light taken by Weinberg and Mann from Mt Haleakala, Hawaii, during March 1966 are used to derive a table of zodiacal light brightnesses at spatial resolutions as small as 0.5° in differential ecliptic longitude λ-λ⊙, and 1.0° in ecliptic latitude β over the region 29.5° < λ-λ ⊙ < 56°, and −30° < β < +30°. Significant differences are found in the brightness distribution above and below the ecliptic plane. This is the first in a series of papers, on presentation and interpretation of observed small scale structures in the brightness of the zodiacal light. In this paper, we bring attention to a feature found in the brightness at all ecliptic latitudes, between differential ecliptic longitudes 39° and 42°.

Temporal and Spatial Variations of the Atmospheric Diffuse Light

The Barbier’s relation for the diffusely scattered airglow has been modified in such a way that it may describe, with simple changes of two parameter values, the dependence on zenith distance of the atmospheric diffuse light at any time of the night.

The symmetry surface of the zodiacal cloud outside the earth's orbit

The location in space of the symmetry surface of the zodiacal cloud at elongation angles 110–140° from the Sun is determined from observations of the zodiacal light taken from the Pioneer 10 space probe, and from the zodiacal light experiment on Skylab. The inclination and ascending node of the symmetry surface from the ecliptic plane are shown to be about 1.2° and 23°, respectively, closest to those of the orbital plane of Mars. These results are consistent with those obtained from the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) at elongation angle 90° from the Sun.