Lunar Exosphere Influence on Lunar-based Near-ultraviolet Astronomical   Observations
  The potential effect of the lunar exosphere on the near-ultraviolet sky background emission is predicted for Lunar-based Ultraviolet Telescope (LUT: a funded Chinese scientific payload for the Chang'e-III mission). Using the upper limit on the OH concentration inferred from the recent MIP CHACE results, our calculations show that the sky brightness due to the illuminated exosphere is $<8.7\ \mathrm{photon\ s^{-1}\ cm^{-2}\ arcsec^{-2}}$ within the wavelength range 245-340 nm. By evaluating the signal-to-noise ratios of observations of an AB=13 mag point source at a series of sky background levels, our analysis indicates that the detection performance of LUT can be moderately degraded by the lunar exosphere emission in most cases. An AB=13 mag point source can still be detected by the telescope at a signal-to-noise ratio more than 8 when the OH concentration is less than $2\times10^8\ \mathrm{molecules\ cm^{-3}}$. However, the effect on the performance is considerable when the exosphere is as dense as suggested by CHACE. 
J. Wang, J. S. deng, J. Cui, L. Cao, Y. L. Qiu, J. Y. Wei
astro-ph.EP