The Phasmatron Spectroscope. It was built in 1998 and cost $4,500.

Prism housing dome, showing one SF10 prism and viewer. This area is normally covered with black cloth to eliminate entry of spurious light.

1. Optical Specifications
2. Operational Diagram
3. Color Spectrum Photos

Operational Optics diagram for the Phasmatron spectroscope.

Here are sections of some spectra photographed through the Phasmatron spectroscope and a Nikon CoolPix digital camera and processed with Photoshop, MW Snap 3 and Iris. The author will be adding more spectra as time allows and make corrections, so make sure you reload this page every time. Please note that this page is optimized for use with Internet Explorer. Navigator does not show the table correctly and links to photos don't work.

Light Type	Visible Spectrum Section	Spectral Distribution
[1]: Triphosphor fluorescent spectrum section on the area of the mercury yellow lines and the mercury green line at 8x. Compare with spectrum [1.3.4] taken with the smaller amici spectroscope.
[2]: Triphosphor fluorescent spectrum section on the area of the Europeum red fluorescence line and mercury yellow lines at 20x. Compare with [1.3.4] taken with the smaller amici spectroscope.
[3]: Triphosphor fluorescent spectrum section on the area of the mercury green line at 16x, showing terbium fluorescence around the line. Compare with [1.3.4] taken with the smaller amici spectroscope.
[4]: Triphosphor fluorescent spectrum section on the area of the mercury blue-green line at magnification of 16x, showing terbium fluorescence around the line. Compare with [1.3.4].
[5]: Triphosphor fluorescent spectrum section on the area of the mercury blue-green line at magnification of 24x. This is the same as [4], enlarged.
[6]: Triphosphor fluorescent spectrum section of the area of the mercury blue line at magnification of 8x. This is equivalent to a low pressure mercury line at 436nm.
[7]: High Pressure Mercury spectrum section of the area of the mercury blue line at magnification of 8x. This is the same area as [6]. Note self-absorption and thermal broadening of the blue Mercury line.
[8]: Triphosphor fluorescent spectrum section of the area of the mercury blue line at magnification of 24x. This is again equivalent to a low pressure mercury line at 436nm.
[9]: The high pressure blue Mercury line at 24x. This is the same area as [8]. Self-absorption and thermal broadening are now easily visible. Photographs [8] and [9] are pushing the spectroscope to its limits.
[10]: Portion of the Solar spectrum between the Hydrogen C=Ha and Sodium D lines. D lines resolve at 8x.
[11]: Zoom on the Sodium D line, above at 24x. The D1/D2 absorption doublet is clearly visible.
[12]: Portion of the Solar spectrum around the iron E line, with Magnesium b1/b2/b3 lines visible.
[13]: Portion of the Solar spectrum around the F=Hb line.
[14]: Section of the spectrum from a low pressure Sodium discharge at 8x taken while a high pressure Sodium lamp was warming up, and while mercury was still participating in the discharge.
[15]: Same as [14], at 24x. The low intensity deep orange lines at (*) on this photo (approximately at the center of the photo) and on [14] are ghosts/artifacts of the Sodium D1/D2 lines.
[16]: Portion of the spectrum from a low pressure Sodium discharge. Besides the D1/D2 doublet two more Sodium doublets, a red one to the left and a green one to the right are visible. The (*) lines are ghosts, as in [14]/[15].
[17]: Same as above, but with pressure increasing. The D1/D2 doublet is starting to self-absorb and emit light on the neighborhood of D1/D2 wavelengths (display of "wings").
[18]: Same as above, but with pressure still higher. The D1/D2 doublet has completely reversed itself and self-absorption is now clearly visible. The green Sodium doublet also displays some thermal broadening.

For an explanation of why some spectral lines appear curved, click here.
For color spectrum photographs taken with a high quality small spectroscope, click here.
For color spectrum photographs taken with a toy spectroscope, click here.
To see some of the lamps that produced these spectra, click here.

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