DESIGN OF A WIDE SPECTRAL RANGE AND HIGH- RESOLUTION SPECTROGRAPH FOR MONITORING THE NIGHT SKY BACKGROUND FOR USE IN AIR FLUORESCENCE TELESCOPES

In this work we present the design of a compact, high-resolution echelle spectrograph for monitoring the Night Sky Background. This spectrograph is combined with a 25.4 cm telescope and uses an appropriate CCD camera as detector. It can operate in a wide spectral range from Ultraviolet to near Infrared (i.e. 300-780 nm) corresponding to the sensitivity spectral window of photocathodes used in the fluorescence telescopes. In the design we also made effort to compromise a sufficient sensitivity and a reasonable exposure time. This instrumentation could become a versatile tool for the operation and development of fluorescence telescopes used in Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray Experiments.