{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,22]],"date-time":"2025-11-22T10:54:19Z","timestamp":1763808859168},"reference-count":13,"publisher":"American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT)","issue":"8","content-domain":{"domain":["pubs.aip.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2009,8,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Sensitive spectroscopic instrumentation is now sufficiently portable to be used in field experiments involving terrestrial light sources as well as for astronomical observations. We report the results of a 20 night investigation of a phenomenon known as \u201cMarfa lights\u201d with the aid of a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a CCD-array spectrometer. We show that the combination of computer azimuth and altitude logging, video recording, and continuous spectroscopy provides enough data for unequivocal identification of false positives such as distant streetlamps, automotive headlamps, and fires. We demonstrate that spectroscopic analysis of atmospheric molecular oxygen absorption can be used to determine distances of continuum-spectrum sources with an accuracy of 6% or better for distances of 4 km or greater. We also used astronomical objects for both directional references and approximate estimation of the system noise level in terms of minimum usable light flux.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1119\/1.3130609","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2009,7,13]],"date-time":"2009-07-13T22:28:28Z","timestamp":1247524108000},"page":"697-703","update-policy":"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1063\/aip-crossmark-policy-page","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Spectroscopy applied to observations of terrestrial light sources of uncertain origin"],"prefix":"10.1119","volume":"77","author":[{"given":"Karl D.","family":"Stephan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Texas State University Department of Technology and School of Engineering, , San Marcos, Texas 78666"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sagar","family":"Ghimire","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Texas State University Department of Technology and School of Engineering, , San Marcos, Texas 78666"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"William A.","family":"Stapleton","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Texas State University Department of Technology and School of Engineering, , San Marcos, Texas 78666"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"James","family":"Bunnell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"29 Bounty Road W., Benbrook, Texas 76132-1003"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"3","reference":[{"key":"2023070118552438800_c1","volume-title":"The Marfa Lights","year":"1989"},{"key":"2023070118552438800_c2","volume-title":"Night Orbs","year":"2003"},{"key":"2023070118552438800_c3","article-title":"An experimental analysis of the Marfa lights"},{"key":"2023070118552438800_c4","article-title":"What Marfa lights probably aren\u2019t","volume-title":"Texas Section Meeting of the American Physical Society","year":"2006"},{"key":"2023070118552438800_c5"},{"key":"2023070118552438800_c6","volume-title":"Handbook of CCD Astronomy","year":"2006","edition":"2nd ed."},{"key":"2023070118552438800_c7","first-page":"679","article-title":"Absolute energy distributions of \u03b1 Lyrae and 109 Virginis from 3295 \u00c5 to 9040 \u00c5","volume":"61","year":"1977","journal-title":"Astron. 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