The CD ROM Spectroscope

Joachim Köppen Kiel/Strasbourg/Illkirch Spring 2007

Overview
These notes are a collection of experiments, explanations, and suggestions about using CDs, CDROMs, or DVDs as spectroscopes. They permit you to explore the spectrum of visible light, requiring little more than a few household items. You will be able to see that there is sodium, hydrogen and magnesium in the Sun, and to tell the nature of artifical light sources (street and office lamps).

Contents

• Version Française
• deutsche Version

• How to see the spectra of street lamps
• How to see the spectral lines of the sun
• Experiments with CD ROMs
• My various spectroscopes
• How to design spectroscopes
• Helpful details: slit-making and diffusors
• Photography
• Sources to look at
• Solar spectrum
• Experiments with a BluRay disk
• Spectra of Gas Discharges