› Forums › Spectroscopy › Help for a newbie? › PCygni
You ar in the right place, I developed the Star Analyser
P Cygni is an excellent test target It shows nice clear emission lines of H and He, ideal to focus on (focus on the features in the spectrum, not on the zero order star image, noting that the field curvature, particularly with long spectra means that the focus will vary along the spectrum to some extent
http://www.threehillsobservatory.co.uk/astro/spectroscopy_16.htm#SA200_filter_wheel
16 inch is a big aperture for a slitless converging beam setup though unless the seeing is exceptional. The resolution is at best defined by the size of the star image relative to the length of the spectrum. The problem is as you increase the length of the spectrum the aberrations of the simple setup get worse and if you try to use a lower focal ratio to keep the star image small, the aberrations also get worse due to the steeply converging beam so these setups work best on modest apertures. give it a go though and I can help steer you to get the best out of the setup
don’t worry too much about software at this stage, concentrate on getting a clear image. It is a low resolution “broad brush” type of device and most of the interesting features the Star Analyser are immediately visible. This is an example of the sort of features you should be able to pick up.
https://britastro.org/observations/observation.php?id=20201216_234948_8cabda965bfe692f
Cheers
Robin