How to build a spectrograph?

[Andres (United States)]

Hello I am a student from Bakersfield College, and also participating in the national solar spectrograph competition. You will need to know what I am trying to accomplish with my spectrograph first, me and my team will be pointing our spectrograph at the sun and splitting the sun into four different regions. Then we will be using the spectrograph to determine how hot each region is and determine how sun spots affect the suns temperature in each region.also the Diffraction Gratings will be provided by Richardson Gratings.
Grating Description is 600 g/mm plane ruled reflection grating with 8.6° nominal blaze angle. The last thing is that we are on a $2000 budget so we cannot afford to spend a huge amount.

more info about the grating:
http://gratings.newport.com/products...efficiency=488

[leon]

Sounds like a very interesting project, I wish you ever success.

Leon

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

I can help.....
Which telescope/camera/ detector will you use?
The total solar energy distribution (Planck Curve) is severely modified by atmospheric absorption and will also be impacted by the QE efficiency of the grating/ camera.
A 600 l/mm reflection grating is a good start.
You need to assess what size of grating, collimator and imaging lens you will use. This will determine the spectral coverage of your chip.
A basic Classical design spectrograph with either a Surplus Shed adjustable slit or a couple of pencil sharpener blades would work...
What software will you use to process the spectral image?
The attached spreadsheet will allow you to do the initial calculations.
Drop me a PM for more details.
Hope this helps.