Types of spectrometers
5 Minute ReadIntroduction Here’s an inexpensive way to use the camera sensor in your smartphone as a light detector for a spectroscope. With a sheet of folded card and a cheap diffraction […]
Turn Your Smartphone into a Spectroscope Read More »
10 Minute ReadIntroduction This post describes three simple demonstration spectrometers that the home experimenter can set up, with a minimum of optical elements, in order to get involved with examining spectra. These
Three Simple “Demo” Spectrometers Read More »
3 Minute ReadIn a previous post I described one of the “workhorses” I have been using for several years for recording spectra. This is the Oriel MS125 spectrometer coupled with an InstaSpec
Freedom from DOS at Last! Read More »
7 Minute ReadIntroduction An optical table, or bench, is the optical equivalent of the very popular solderless prototyping breadboards that many electronics hobbyists regularly use to test and develop their electronic circuits.
A Homemade Optical Table Read More »
3 Minute ReadThe calibration of spectra in wavelength λ that you will see in these different posts has usually been performed with commercial “pencil-type” spectral lamps of mercury-argon Hg(Ar), krypton (Kr) and
Light Sources for Calibrating Spectrometers Read More »
4 Minute ReadIntroduction Modern spectrometers today, regardless of their size, employ sensitive linear CCD and CMOS sensors. The most popular sizes have 1024, 2048 and more recently 4096 pixels along the dispersion
Spectrometer Calibration Read More »
13 Minute ReadIntroduction The development of the spectroscope over the last 160 years since its invention has paralleled the evolution in technological advances. This is particularly the case over the last several
Spectrometer Designs Read More »
4 Minute ReadIntroduction As its name implies, this spectrometer has a fixed diffraction grating. So the wavelength range available and the resolving power (the spectral resolution) are pre-determined during manufacture. Oriel (now
FICS -Fixed Imaging Compact Spectrograph Read More »
4 Minute ReadIntroduction MS125 This is a very versatile spectrograph that I have used over the years to record a variety of spectra from various emission sources, astronomical objects and other samples.
MS125 and InstaSpec IV Combination Read More »
8 Minute ReadIntroduction This post describes some construction details for an improved version of the SGS spectrometer in what I called the MFSS or Multiple Fixed Slit Spectrograph. The design was intended
Homemade Spectrometers (Part II) Read More »
7 Minute ReadA few years ago I built a couple of diffraction grating spectrographs. At that time I was a keen amateur astronomer with some degree of traditional photographic, as well as
Homemade Spectrometers (Part I) Read More »
2 Minute ReadIntroduction Several years ago I connected the MS125 spectrometer to a 12 inch Meade LX200 telescope to test its suitability for recording stellar spectra. In order manually to guide on
Some Early Stellar Spectra Read More »
