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New to Spectroscopy

Pig

By Pig
in Radio Astronomy and Spectroscopy

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Pig

Pig

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To mix this lovely pastime up a bit I thought I would try my hand at spectroscopy. Fortunately we have had a couple of clear nights on the bounce allowing me a great opportunity to do some experimenting.

My equipment consisted of a colour CCD, an AS100 grating filter and a trial version of the RSpec software.  The scope I used was my C8 SCT mounted on the very capable Ioptron AZpro. (I also dual mounted the refractor for visual purposes but did not use it as part of the experiment)

Using the calculator on the RSpec home page I very easily determined the spacing from the CCD sensor to the grating had to be between 50 & 60mm to get an optimum spread of the spectrum and to achieve focus.
So after only 24 hours I have managed to get lovely profiles of both Sirius and Arcturus without any problems at all, what is most surprising is having compared them against independent images on the web they are very good indeed albeit having a narrower spectra.
I have to say it is most pleasing to be able to look through one scope at your target and at the same time (via the second scope) be able to see its light spectrum on the PC screen in real time.

Another pleasant surprise is the relatively low cost for a beginner like me, especially so if you already have a camera / web cam.

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Pig

Pig

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10 minutes ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

An interesting subject which amateurs now play an important part. In November my Astro Society had Jack Martin giving a talk on Practical Spectroscopy. Jack (who is a member on SGL) has produced a book on the subject.

it just goes to show just how remarkable SGL is Mark in that there is a great deal of knowledge relating to the whole astro spectrum (forgive the pun) we have available to us. I am also quite lucky that one of my close friends is also an expert on the subject and has wrote a few published papers :happy7: so I can always count on his assistance.

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Merlin66

Merlin66

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Well done!

It's always good to see amateurs considering the challenge of spectroscopy.

The grating is an ideal starting point. I call it Spectroscopy 101. It allows you to obtain and recognize spectra as well as using processing software to calibrate and compare your results.

 

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Pig

Pig

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1 hour ago, Merlin66 said:

Well done!

It's always good to see amateurs considering the challenge of spectroscopy.

The grating is an ideal starting point. I call it Spectroscopy 101. It allows you to obtain and recognize spectra as well as using processing software to calibrate and compare your results.

 

Thank you :happy7: I will try my refractor the next clear spell we get and see how CA affects the results.

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Mark at Beaufort

Mark at Beaufort

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2 hours ago, Dave In Vermont said:

Not sure which book is being suggested. But here's a very good one from Ken M. Harrison: 'Grating Spectroscopes and How to Use Them.'

From: Springer.com

You can do some great & fun things with those little gratings. I highly recommend them.

Enjoy -

Dave

Dave

Ken Harrison is Merlin 66 as mentioned above.

 

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Pig

Pig

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7 hours ago, Dave In Vermont said:

Not sure which book is being suggested. But here's a very good one from Ken M. Harrison: 'Grating Spectroscopes and How to Use Them.'

From: Springer.com

You can do some great & fun things with those little gratings. I highly recommend them.

Enjoy -

Dave

The books I have seen online allow a preview for a few pages and they do look excellent. The one I want is £32 so I will have to wait or find one 2nd hand ?

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Dave In Vermont

Dave In Vermont

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9 hours ago, Pig said:

The books I have seen online allow a preview for a few pages and they do look excellent. The one I want is £32 so I will have to wait or find one 2nd hand ?

I know the feeling. It seems like yesterday I could & would walk into my local book-shop and plunk down $3.95 for an (expensive) book. Maybe $9.95 for a hardcover. Now it's you have to take out a bank-loan!

No wonder people coming out of schools are becoming increasingly ignorant - on an exponential-curve.

Woof!

Dave

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Owmuchonomy

Owmuchonomy

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I started like you a few months ago and Ken's book is a must read. He and Robin also give great advice via SGL and the Yahoo group. Being an imager already i found it very straightforward to capture the spectra. What i had to work on was using the software. I now use BASS. It's another story but I even managed a mag 10 star capture the other day when quasar chasing all with Ken's '101' approach.

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Pig

Pig

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19 hours ago, Dave In Vermont said:

I know the feeling. It seems like yesterday I could & would walk into my local book-shop and plunk down $3.95 for an (expensive) book. Maybe $9.95 for a hardcover. Now it's you have to take out a bank-loan!

No wonder people coming out of schools are becoming increasingly ignorant - on an exponential-curve.

Woof!

Dave

Dave, I agree totally that prices do seem to rocketed :happy7: However, I guess in situations where the market place is not large the price will higher than usual.

5 hours ago, robin_astro said:

Hi Pig,

The Star Analyser is my baby (well 12 years old now so not really so much a baby any more!)

http://www.threehillsobservatory.co.uk/astro/spectroscopy.htm

 so if you have any questions  about it or on amateur spectroscopy in general just ask away !

Cheers

Robin

Robin, thank you for the offer :happy7: I am sure I will be taking you up on it in the very near future.

4 hours ago, Owmuchonomy said:

I started like you a few months ago and Ken's book is a must read. He and Robin also give great advice via SGL and the Yahoo group. Being an imager already i found it very straightforward to capture the spectra. What i had to work on was using the software. I now use BASS. It's another story but I even managed a mag 10 star capture the other day when quasar chasing all with Ken's '101' approach.

Chris, I was very surprised how straight forward it was to capture and process on my first attempt ..... I have only used RSpec as yet but I would like to try another processing package before I purchase RSpec. Well done with the mag 10 :happy8:

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robin_astro

robin_astro

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RSpec's  (unique?) strength is its live view capture function but once you get into the processing of the spectra there are several freeware programs around such as

Visual Spec, which RSpec borrowed from extensively but tends to crash rather often  

BASS which is comprehensive and designed to be easy to use. 

ISIS (which I use, though not the easiest to learn) by Christian Buil, arguably the worlds leading amateur spectroscopist.  If you have not come across  it yet, his website is a fascinating one for anyone interested in spectroscopy.

http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/

beyond that there are the programs the professionals use like MIDAS and IRAF but they are not for the faint hearted and definitely not for beginners !

Cheers

Robin

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Pig

Pig

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Thank you Robin, I quite like the live view feature :happy8: Mind you I couldn't get it to work tonight on Venus. I could see the live graph but no live image on the view screen.

I think I know why but it will have to wait because the clouds have rolled in.

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SilverAstro

SilverAstro

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On 24/01/2017 at 18:04, robin_astro said:

ISIS (which I use, though not the easiest to learn) by Christian Buil, arguably the worlds leading amateur spectroscopist.  If you have not come across  it yet, his website is a fascinating one for anyone interested in spectroscopy.

http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/

His IRIS image processing freeware is also an excellent contribution to the hobby

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robin_astro

robin_astro

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If anyone is  looking for suggestions for  targets which show a range of interesting physical phenomena, I can recommend Francois Teyssier's excellent "Low Resolution Spectroscopy Observer's Guide".  Many of the targets there are accessible using just a Star Analyser. It can be downloaded from his website here

http://www.astronomie-amateur.fr/Documents%20Spectro/SpectroscopieBasseResolution_En.pdf

Robin

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