On 7 and 8 June 1996 UT we (Joe Adams and Mike Skrutskie -- pictured below) cooled the 2MASS prototype camera and observed the airglow in a 9-degree field at J and H-band. To achieve this field-of-view we placed a 140mm focal length lens in front of the dewar window. The scale is about 120 arcseconds/pixel or 9 degrees across. Below are two flat-fielded images of the near-zenith sky. The peak to valley variations are about 15%. One could watch these patterns drift across the screen and change in intensity over the course of a few minutes. The movies at the end of this page show time-lapse sequences.

H-band 9-degree fields (yes, these frames have been flat fielded!). The time difference between these two images is 7 minutes.

Joe and Mike at 1.6um at sunset. Note the clouds and airglow structure in the background.

And now, Joe Adams Productions presents...
THE MOVIE (preliminary versions)
Each frame is a 15 second exposure.
These movies are typically 4Mb in size.

• 15 minutes of H airglow (black to white is +/- 7% of the mean).
  
• 1.5 hours of H airglow.
  
• 45 minutes of H airglow with the galactic plane disappearing to the upper left and a moon ghost on the right.
  
• 45 minutes of J airglow.
• J and H side by side.
• Horizon H-band airglow (horizon is on the right side of the scene).

  Joe Adam's airglow page.
  Here is Joe Adam's final report.