Hi everybody
One of my favorite objects to hunt for when I'm not taking pictures is hunting for those elusive small Planetary nebula's that are hard to distinguish from other stars.
Since my forced retirement, money for new equipment is not easy to come by nowadays, so I improvise wherever I can,
I resort to using a blackened side, right angle prism, for which I have made an enclosure for, that fits over any eyepiece that I have, this allows me to pick out those planetarys much easier since a stars spectrum can easily be seen with the prism ,and the planetary objects tend to not change, that is, visually they do not make that telltale rainbow spectrum that stars do under the prism.
I do have to use a dark towel over my head to get a good look though, but it does work!
I even made a slit for the prism by taking apart a razor blade and placing the blades very close together just under the prism.
the tricky part was getting the right angle for the prism to show the Spectra, they are real small and not very bright, so the Dark towel really helps. I now have just seen a spectroscope which is Made by Rigel Systems for only $299.95 they claim it can be used for both photographic and visual applications, the Difference is they use a grating instead of a prism. guess how much mine cost to make? $20 bucks.
OK I cant take pictures but it is effective for visual use only.
Has anyone hear played around with visual spectroscopy on the Stars?
Or does anyone know of any other Manufacturers of Astronomical Spectroscopic Equipment that you don't have to sell your Car for?
Dennis
