Hi All,
This is to encourage Societies and organisers of events to have a basic spectroscope, a transmission grating, for ‘Visual Observations, firstly’ group viewing
I cannot give a recommendation like Ken can in
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=147104 . Also buyers must be
aware.
What I can do is share a summary from actual viewing with similar gratings, from public events, and from relatively-massive reading up:
1. One grating used multiple times over multiple years of group viewings will benefit multitudes of members and the public, and possibly their families and other contacts, for multiple years to come.
2. For ‘visuals’ in particular, having a cylindrical lens, like this one has, may be beneficial (it widens, crosswise, the spectrum seen).
3. Please do not rely on a member to need to always be there as well as using their own do-no-touch grating.
4. The cost is possibly less than a club spends on sausages.
5. So far as known, neither grating with a cylindrical lens, the Baader or the Rainbow Optics, is available in Australia or NZ. Apparently not anywhere for the former. The latter recently cost Aus$360 bought in the US; it was the last one in stock at the time with later, unconfirmed, ‘supplier issues’. It was bought partly for reasons of community benefits. I'm extremely happy with it, how
blazed 'bright' it is. But I might have bought this $299 Baader if it had come up earlier –the kit has an eyepiece holder too.
6. It seems better for the hard-to-find cylindrical lens to be used for group viewing, rather than having an individual buys the set and then, relatively, scarcely uses the lens.
7. It will give an example to members to start exploring with their own similar and basic transmission gratings. Also it would be good to make a comparison study of various gratings. Some individual members likely have other types that are available locally.
8. After some basic ‘visuals’ it’s a very small step, if interested, to show colourful spectra in real-time on a screen (good for not-small groups) as well as, if interested, graphs accompanying some explanation of relevance (that’s an understatement) to astronomy.
9. If no A/S is interested, ….. (thinking about this, what does this mean for science actually, can’t think, coming to a full stop).
[In case of thoughts along the line of ‘if the members want it’, let us consider the validity or otherwise of these: ”If family members want ICE/sugar/greens we’ll serve it up”, “Let’s vote, democracy”, “If the majority are not interested we’ll not present it so they won’t hear about it positively or ever experience it so they won’t become interested”, “Those who are interested are a minority so they can do things unsupported in a corner so they become more of a minority so they can leave so the others become even more a majority”, “The majority are not interested”.]
All are of course personal views at this point in time. I have no connection with the eBay seller or any suppliers and I have never met Ken, or Julianh who summarised it so well in post number 4 of
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...78#post1270478 . So many elsewhere are saying the same ‘knock out’ thing.
Anyway, let’s enjoy.
Regards
Sol
