You know your spectrograph is too big when...

[FraserClarke]

...you have to climb inside it!

Yours truly climbing inside one of the FMOS spectrographs at the Subaru telescope to make an adjustment to the fibre slit. The whole spectrograph is in a box ~4x2m in size. When operational, the box is sealed up and cooled to ~-50C, hence the layers of insulation foam around it...

Thought some amateur spectroscopists might be interested to see the silly things professionals build sometimes

[RogerTheDodger]

Nice, just remember to get out before they close the door

[Merlin66]

Whoooooo

Not sure it would fit on the back of my 12" Lx ;-)

[jsandse]

I know I had to add a 2.5kg counterweight to my mount when I put my spectroscope on my telescope which I thought was bad enough...

...but at least I did not have to risk my manhood adjusting it

[mag10]

I cannot imagine what it must be like to work on such a magnificent instrument.

(And I have a lot of imagination).

Good luck, be well, and bring back great pictures and more knowledege.

[Jack Martin]

TeaDwarf

I can't wait to see the results, where is this located?

Jack

[FraserClarke]

Hi Jack,

It is on the Japanese 8m Subaru telescope on Hawai'i. This is just one of the two spectrographs -- there is a not-quite-identical twin behind the camera. This one was built by the UK, the other by Japan. Both spectrographs are stationary, and sit in a room in the telescope dome. They are fed by 400 fibres (200 in each spectrograph) from the telescope prime-focus (the black cable just below my foot is the fibre bundle). The fibres can be moved around in the telescope focal plane so that you can pick up different targets. You can take spectra of up-to 400 objects in one go. The key science drivers are things large galaxy redshift surveys, etc.

It's a large facility instrument, so it can be used by astronomers for whatever they feel is good science (needs to be justified through peer-reviewed observing proposals of course). The key science surveys are getting underway just now, so I expect the first results will be coming out in a year or two.

[bluemarkus]

wow thats far out, really. i mean shure the technology companies need to sell their stuff too, but come on so much hazzle ? then they come up with some super weird new theory like "cosmic background noise steming from the big bang" lolburger. well if it pays the bills, why not... when theres new money for me i might get a star analyzer tho this whole spectroscopy thing is intriguing.

[Merlin66]

Spectroscopy is the way to go!

Amateurs can observe the changing conditions inside Super Nova and other stars....

The final frontier.....

[Ben Ritchie]

Nice picture

Amateurs can observe the changing conditions inside Super Nova and other stars....

...whereas i've had a weekend writing VLT telescope time proposals. Can probably recite the UVES manual by heart now... :/

[moonwatcher]

How does one start out on this field with very little cash?

Hopefully this is another facinating topic that will gain more followers and their home made project spectrographs!!!

[Merlin66]

The easiest, fastest and cheapest entry point to Spectroscopy is using the Star Analyser grating. (Bern at Modern Astronomy sells them) This is fitted to the nosepiece of your camera and inserted into the telescope focuser. Bright A type stars provide an ideal starting point. They allow you to practise focusing, and basic spectral analysis ( You can use the freeware program Visual Spec -Vspec or the commercial program RSpec)

HTH