Help with Sbig SGS

[l3gendluk3]

I was given a Sbig SGS by my astronomy teacher to see if I could put it on a telescope in our spare dome, but right now I have got it at home. I have successfully captured one part of a spectra of a fluorescent light, but I have a couple of questions;
1. What wavelength do I start with?
2. What wavelength do I end with?
3. Is there a special program which I have to use to stitch the separate images together?
4. Do fingerprints on the gratings affect the readings in any way?
5. Do you know of any resources that can help me?

Thanks,

Luke

[Merlin66]

Luke,
You've done well to grab a SGS...they are no longer in production.
Did you obtain the "Spectra" software which normally goes with it?
The manual is available:
www.fas.harvard.edu/~astrolab/SGS_manual.pdf‎ (http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~astrolab/SGS_manual.pdf‎) [/URL]



The SGS has the choice of a 18 or 72micron slit and a two gratings 150 and 600 l/mm.
The "plate scale" varies from 478 A/mm to 119 A/mm.
The micrometer head is used to calibrate the central wavelength of the spectral image. The wavelength coverage will depend on the camera being used...
In my "Astronomical Spectroscopy for Amateurs" the SGS is described on p 77 and comparison fluoro spectra (to help you identify the emission lines) on p27.
If you don't have the SBIG software, there are freeware options like VSpec, ISIS, BASS etc as well as commercial versions (ie RSpec)

I would need to know details of your camera to evaluate further.
Drop me a PM with your email address and I'll send further info.

Re. finger marks on the grating....this is BAD news...gratings cannot be cleaned. Best just to leave them alone. This will effect the efficiency of the grating, but unless they are realy bad, the grating is still usable.

We have a very active astronomical spectroscopy group you should consider:
[URL]http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/astronomical_spectroscopy/info (https://www.google.com.au/#)