Seestar Objective Prism Spectroscopy

[James Weightman]

I have recently succumbed to acquiring a Seestar smart telescope which is good fun to use. I have recently tried to use it for elementary spectroscopy. To this end I recently bought a 10 degree wedge prism (source: see attached) and placed in front of telescope. Results and methodology (see further attached) So near and yet so far! Shows promise but restricted by lack of flexibility of software. I would be interested to know if anyone has tried some thing similar with better success. I avoided using grating as its dispersion far to wide to be contained in single frame, a prism hopefully showing many bright single spectra.

Attachments:

1. 

   seestarspectrumdemo.jpg
   

2. 

   prismrange.jpg
   

[Robin Leadbeater]

I seem to recall someone somewhere on the internet trying an objective prism on a Seestar but abandoning it as it affected the balance of the scope too much. There have been some tests using very low dispersion gratings which allow the full spectrum to be fitted in the field but they were very inefficient poor quality gratings.

Note this is all hearsay, third hand so don’t take it as gospel !

Cheers
Robin

[Alex Pratt]

I found this Seestar Spectroscopy presentation online (from minute 24 onwards)

https://www.youtube.com/live/4BhlkOqo8cU?t=619s

I don’t own a Seestar and I can’t comment / advise on the contents of the presentation. Perhaps you’ve already seen it.

Alex.

[Dr Paul Leyland]

Robin: was that with a glass prism? Glass is dense. There are much lighter transparent materials out there. Diamond may be ideal. Shame about the cost!

The printed holder may also be thinned out perhaps.

[Author]

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