Inherited a Spectroscope - help please!

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marktownley
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Inherited a Spectroscope - help please!

Post by marktownley »

Hi All.

I inherited a small spectroscope - it was destined for a skip as no one had used it in years, there was no way I was seeing it going to land fill...

ImageP1150252 by Mark Townley, on Flickr

It is in excellent condition, just missing either a prism or a grating - which would be best for me to get?

I plan to use this when I do outreach as a 'curiosity' - people like to look through things. What can I expect from it? Are there any tricks I can do to make it more appealing to the masses? Any web links to anything exciting I can do with it on outreach duty?

Mark


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Re: Inherited a Spectroscope - help please!

Post by highfnum »

From picture holder looks like it was designed for a grating
reflective grating look like a small mirror about 6mm thick , 25-50mm square
but of course i may be wrong


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Re: Inherited a Spectroscope - help please!

Post by Merlin66 »

These student spectroscopes provide a great introduction to spectroscopy.
I have almost an identical unit.
They use either a 25mm 60 degree prism (Thorlabs) or usually a 600l/mm transmission grating. You can use any suitable transmission grating (Paton Hawksley)
You can start by looking at the spectra from various lamps/ filters etc. Use a small mirror to direct sunlight into the slit and view the Fraunhofer lines.
It's too heavy and cumbersome for telescope spectroscopy.
I removed the eyepiece and fitted a Baader micro focuser to allow me to use a webcam.
Enjoy!!!


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http://astronomicalspectroscopy.com
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Re: Inherited a Spectroscope - help please!

Post by Merlin66 »

Mark,
Have a look on Amazon or Alibris for a copy of Baker's "The Spectroscope"
It complements the student spectroscope nicely.


"Astronomical Spectroscopy - The Final Frontier" - to boldly go where few amateurs have gone before
https://groups.io/g/astronomicalspectroscopy  
http://astronomicalspectroscopy.com
"Astronomical Spectroscopy for Amateurs" and
"Imaging Sunlight - using a digital spectroheliograph" - Springer
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Re: Inherited a Spectroscope - help please!

Post by marktownley »

Thanks guys, just the advice I needed :)


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http://brierleyhillsolar.blogspot.co.uk/
Solar images, a collection of all the most up to date live solar data on the web, imaging & processing tutorials - please take a look!
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Re: Inherited a Spectroscope - help please!

Post by Carbon60 »

Nice instrument there, Mark.

Stu.


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Re: Inherited a Spectroscope - help please!

Post by Montana »

A very nice summer project, that was a lucky find :)

Alexandra


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Re: Inherited a Spectroscope - help please!

Post by grimble_cornet »

Lovely bit of kit Mark - used to enjoy playing with those when I taught the odd physics lesson. Yours has the same clip for a grating that I remember - we used relatively cheap 600 line material mounted in a 35mm slide frame; remember what 35mm slide film was/is returned in? You can have lots of fun looking at different light sources and should be able to resolve the sodium doublet fairly well.
Have fun!


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Re: Inherited a Spectroscope - help please!

Post by marktownley »

diffraction grating and 60 degree prism acquired this morning before they too were skip bound ;)

Thanks all :)


Image
http://brierleyhillsolar.blogspot.co.uk/
Solar images, a collection of all the most up to date live solar data on the web, imaging & processing tutorials - please take a look!
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