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Amateur Astronomical Spectroscopy

jsandse

By jsandse
in Star Parties & Astro Events

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jsandse

jsandse

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Hi Kate,

Unless you are able to make a spectroscope yourself - or get a friend to make one for you then the choices you have are pretty limited and they are pretty expensive.

For high resolution work R > 15000 then the only spectroscope on the market I am aware of is the LHIRES III (cost £2500 approx). It is a good spectroscope, easy to use and produces good results.

For intermediate resolution R around 3000 (roughly) there is the Baader DADOS and Merlin's L200 ($900) - unfortunately merlins current run of spectroscopes are sold out.

There is also Elliotts spectroscope mentioned above - but I dont know much about that one (its about £1200).

Sticking to the star analyser adding a prism to the optical train should increase the resolution by 10% or so - you can buy one from Shelyak if you want.

Thats the choices out there that I am aware of - you asked for my recommendation of what to get next after mastering the star analyser. That depends on:

- what money you are willing to spend

- what you actually want to do with the spectroscope (thats probably the harder question to answer).

- I also need to know more about your existing equipment

Perhaps we should continue this discussion through PMs/email or telephone.

cheers

John

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Ransu

Ransu

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I have also find myself more and more interested about spectroscopy. So far i have been in astroimaging, but i would like to start something more serious.

Star analyser grating could be good start, can you more experienced recommend software, RSPEC, visual spec or something else.

My available telescopes: C14, C8, Equinox120, Megrez 90. Cameras: ATIK16HR, ISDFK21 AU618, QHY5. This spectroscopy is new field for me, and maybe i have to start by reading some books of spectroscopy.

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the rev

the rev

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I started out reading Amateur Spectroscopy by Tonkin and then found 2 good books by Ken Harrison - Astronomical Spectrscopy for Amateurs and Grating Spectroscopes - How to use them.

I use my SXV. m9 and a star analyser, with a mak-cas 5 inch.

Kate

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Merlin66

Merlin66

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IMHO I'd start by reading the books!

The probably the Star Analyser grating - low resolution but it does provide the basis for spectral processing. I recommend Buil's IRIS and Valerie's Vspec ( there are good tutorials on Valerie's site) as a starting point for spectral analysis.

After a year or so you will want to move to higher resolution and use a slit spectroscope.....that's when the costs go up!

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jsandse

jsandse

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Ransu,

Looks like you have excellent equipment to do spectroscopy. The C14 would be great to use and you have some nice cameras there - the Atik in particular for capturing spectra.

You can start off by using the star analyser to do low resolution work. My favourite software at the moment are ISIS by Christian Buil which works a treat and SpcAudace works very well too. I have not used RSpec so can't comment on that.

Of course you can always (if you have the budget) go straight onto high resolution work if you acquire an LHIRESIII or an eSHEL spectroscope from Shelyak or even make your own spectroscope!

There are plenty of high resolution pro-am campaigns on at the moment which you could contribute to including:

RR Lyr, AZ Cas, P Cyg, VV Cep and the Be stars survey

cheers

John

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LeeB

LeeB

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Great thread , never really interested in spectroscopy until current course on exo planets,(rossiter mclaughlin etc) looking forward to trying the simpler stuff this winter. This course has also included use of the pirate observatory on majorca, for checking of WASP data on binary classification , sort of similar stuff and enjoyed that also.

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jsandse

jsandse

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Great to hear from you Lee,

Yes spectroscopy is being used by the pros to discover lots about the properties of exoplanets.

I reckon spectroscopy may provide us eventually with our first strong evidence of life on some of these exoplanets - via the "green edge" perhaps -detecting seasonal growth/changes in vegetation using spectroscopy.

There are some really nice videos online about using spectroscopy to identify the properties of exoplanets.

This one from STScI is all about spectroscopy of transiting extrasolar planets

https://webcast.stsci.edu/webcast/detail.xhtml?talkid=3123&parent=1

Well worth a watch if you haven't seen it before and it explains how the James Webb Space telescope can potentially play a key role in studying he structure of the atmospheres of exoplanets.

cheers

John

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LeeB

LeeB

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Great to hear from you Lee,

Yes spectroscopy is being used by the pros to discover lots about the properties of exoplanets.

I reckon spectroscopy may provide us eventually with our first strong evidence of life on some of these exoplanets - via the "green edge" perhaps -detecting seasonal growth/changes in vegetation using spectroscopy.

There are some really nice videos online about using spectroscopy to identify the properties of exoplanets.

This one from STScI is all about spectroscopy of transiting extrasolar planets

https://webcast.stsc...d=3123&parent=1

Well worth a watch if you haven't seen it before and it explains how the James Webb Space telescope can potentially play a key role in studying he structure of the atmospheres of exoplanets.

cheers

John

The focus of this part of the course i'm doing is mainly transiting exoplanets based on the excellent book of the same name by Carole Haswell. great stuff.

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the rev

the rev

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Hi Kate,

Unless you are able to make a spectroscope yourself - or get a friend to make one for you then the choices you have are pretty limited and they are pretty expensive.

For high resolution work R > 15000 then the only spectroscope on the market I am aware of is the LHIRES III (cost £2500 approx). It is a good spectroscope, easy to use and produces good results.

For intermediate resolution R around 3000 (roughly) there is the Baader DADOS and Merlin's L200 ($900) - unfortunately merlins current run of spectroscopes are sold out.

There is also Elliotts spectroscope mentioned above - but I dont know much about that one (its about £1200).

Sticking to the star analyser adding a prism to the optical train should increase the resolution by 10% or so - you can buy one from Shelyak if you want.

Thats the choices out there that I am aware of - you asked for my recommendation of what to get next after mastering the star analyser. That depends on:

- what money you are willing to spend

- what you actually want to do with the spectroscope (thats probably the harder question to answer).

- I also need to know more about your existing equipment

Perhaps we should continue this discussion through PMs/email or telephone.

cheers

John

Hi John,

What I was looking for was information on the variety of options when making the move up to a higher res camera. I enjoy using the star analyser, but was looking to move on and had heard about Lisa and Lihres but was unsure of differences/ similarities

Kate

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pgudgeon

pgudgeon

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You mentioned "contribute spectra to pro-am campaigns such as the Delta Scorpio and Epsilon Aurigae campaigns", can you tell me a little, or give me a link where I can get more info on these (regarding thier amateur contribution).

I'm giving a talk to my local astronomy group next month regarding astro-spectroscopy (each month one of us gives a talk). What I'd like to end with is an example of any groups/programs where experienced amateur astro-spectroscopers are doing useful work and making useful spectra contributions.

Peter

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