The SDSS has taken spectra of thousands of F-type stars, at different distances and through different amounts of interstellar dust. These stars were chosen for calibration purposes; they were chosen because they have very well-understood and consistent spectra. These have been used to calibrate the SDSS telescope, but they can also be used to calibrate interstellar dust.
The general procedure would be to start by measuring the equivalent widths of a few absorption lines—preferably a couple of Balmer lines and a couple of metal lines— consistently for all F-stars. These line EWs would provide a dust-indpendent temperature and metallicity indicator for all the stars. Compare the spectra of the F-stars at different reddening but fixed absorption-line equivalent widths (and therefore fixed temperature and metallicity) to get the dust attenuation at resolution of a few thousand. There probably isn't anything interesting there, but if there is it would be a valuable discovery.
The easiest way to do this project is by spectral stacking, but there might be methods that build a non-linear model of the stellar spectrum with three controlling parameters: Balmer EW, metal EW, and SFD-dust-map amplitude. I started discussing this project many years ago with Karl Gordon (STScI); if you want to give it a shot, send us both email for ideas (if you want to; otherwise do it and surprise us!).
Two quick comments: One is that Nathan Sanders (CfA) worked on this with some high school students and got good results. I encouraged him to publish them but they decided not to, I think. The other is that Jeffrey Mei, an undergraduate at NYUAD, is firing this up with me, and seems to be getting good results. If you want to do this and collaborate or compare, let me know by email or comment here.
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