High-Resolution Spectrograph
Lab-worthy spectrum analysis for cheap.
Photography by Ed Troxell
Nearly 200 years ago, Joseph von Fraunhofer built the first spectroscope and saw dark lines in the spectrum of the sun. This led him to discover that you can determine the chemical elements in things by analyzing the light they give off. Each element has its own “signature” of lines in the light spectrum. The lines correspond to the characteristic wavelengths that electrons absorb and emit as they jump between lower- and higher-energy orbits around the atom’s nucleus.
The first spectroscopes used glass prisms to split light into ...
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