Abstract : A new, light balloonborne UV-visible spectrometer, called SALOMON, is designed to perform nighttime measurements of stratospheric trace-gas species by using the Moon as a light source. The first light, performed on 31 October 1998 at mid-latitude with a float altitude of 26.7 km, allowed the performance of the pointing system to be checked and vertical profiles of ozone, NO2, NO3, and possibly OBrO Co be obtained. First the instrument and then the performance of the pointing system and the detector are described. Finally the vertical profiles are compared with other profiles obtained at the same location five years before with the heavier balloonborne spectrometer AMON, which uses a star as the light source.