Analysis of the Schmidt, Cohen & Margon (1980) features in the Red Rectangle nebula

This study investigates the relationship between atmospheric extinction and the spectrum of the Red Rectangle nebula on scales of a few to a few tens of Ang. It is found that the fine structure of the nebula's continuum short-ward of 6700A is similar to background spectra, and is thus determined either by atmospheric absorption or by light from HD44179 scattered in the earth atmosphere.