Measurement of the extragalactic background light at 8600Å using dark cloud shadow and the CaII-triplet lines

We present results of a measurement of the near infrared Extragalactic Background Light using the dark-cloud method. Long-slit spectra covering the opaque core of the intermediate–latitude globule DC303.8-14.2 and the almost unobscured off area were measured using nodding-along-the-slit measuring technique providing a differential spectrum free of most of the foreground components. A template for the only remaining major foreground component, the scattered integrated starlight dominated by the strong Ca II triplet lines at 8498, 8542, 8664$\mathring{A}$, from the dark core itself was constructed using the GAIA RVS spectral database. The derived EBL intensity is $1.62\pm 0.76({\sigma }_{stat}){10}^{-9}ergc{m}^{-2}{s}^{-1}{\mathring{A}}^{-1}s{r}^{-1}$ or $13.8\pm 6.5({\sigma }_{stat})$nW m${}^{-2}$sr${}^{-1}$; this represents a tentative detection at $2.1\sigma$, level.