<p>There isn't a lot of engineering here. Just use a grating dense enough to give you a comfortable angle. Less dense grating (fewer lines per mm) means a more shallow angle and narrow spectrum, and that can be harder to use. Super-dense grating might be expensive and fragile. Stay somewhere in the middle - you'll have to do a few trial runs on your own, see what works for you.</p>

<p>I made this spectrograph for my kids, works well enough:</p>

<p><a href="http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/light/spectrograph/spectrograph.html" rel="nofollow">http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/light/spectrograph/spectrograph.html</a></p>

<p>I used the cheap grating that they provide on their own store, 1000 lines / mm, not bad:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.scitoyscatalog.com/product/DIFFRACTION.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.scitoyscatalog.com/product/DIFFRACTION.html</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-04-20T23:12:14.133Z
2014-04-20T23:12:14.133Z
Florin Andrei
<p>I am interested in doing some solar spectroscopy on my own for fun. How do I go about choosing the appropriate diffraction grating?</p>

<spectroscopy>
Choosing a diffraction grating
okarin
# Choosing a diffraction grating

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-04-20)

I am interested in doing some solar spectroscopy on my own for fun. How do I go about choosing the appropriate diffraction grating?

**Tags:** spectroscopy

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2014-04-20. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

There isn't a lot of engineering here. Just use a grating dense enough to give you a comfortable angle. Less dense grating (fewer lines per mm) means a more shallow angle and narrow spectrum, and that can be harder to use. Super-dense grating might be expensive and fragile. Stay somewhere in the middle - you'll have to do a few trial runs on your own, see what works for you.

I made this spectrograph for my kids, works well enough:

<http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/light/spectrograph/spectrograph.html>

I used the cheap grating that they provide on their own store, 1000 lines / mm, not bad:

<http://www.scitoyscatalog.com/product/DIFFRACTION.html>


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