In connection with the upcoming International Polar Year (2007-8) a network of high-sensitivity optical devices will be operating in the Arctic to record and monitor weak luminescence in the upper atmosphere, mainly the auroras and night-sky luminescence. The need to compare the data of the optical measurements at different points requires high accuracy of their intercalibration in terms of international standards. This article gives a review of mathematical methods for processing the data of photometers with a small field of view and describes the experimental apparatus (located at Svalbard University on Spitsbergen) for their absolute calibration. The university's specialized optical laboratory is described, and the results of the certification and monitoring of the brightness of secondary standards of the calibration lamps used to calibrate the optical devices are presented.