EISCO - PH100QA Premium Quantitative Spectroscope, +/- 5nm Accuracy

This is a very solid/sound product. I've had no issues with the build quality. The accuracy, however, leaves some to be desired, especially in the laboratory setting. For laboratory use, I would recommend a computerized version, although the price range will be significantly higher. For classroom use, it works great. I can definitely envision a lab assignment being created around this item.

I bought this prior to doing my own experiments with gratings I have purchased. It is kind of fun to compare old compact fluorescents with their peaky spectrums to more modern LED's and their more continuous spectra. The slit is pretty wide so I tightened it up with some black electrical tape. This made the spectrum fainter so it required brighter light, but the lines are narrower and crisper. The pic I shared is a compact fluorescent with the tighter slit. The 405 and 436 nm mercury lines are in the right place on my unit, but the bright green from mercury should be at ~546. There should be a twin peak at 577 and 579 due to mercury, but there appears to be a lot more going on in this lamp. I found that Fluorescents have other elements Terbium and Europium. Terbium makes the broad cyan peak at 487 nm and europium a bright red peak at 611nm. You can see that the scale on my unit shows this last peak at just below 600nm so it is off by at least 12nm by this end of the scale. Still great fun! Of note, older (40-50+) and/or farsighted users will not be able to view the scale in focus, but younger users should have no problem. Have fun!

The eyepiece seems to be just a flat piece of plastic. The angstrom scale is impossible to see with my old eyes. With glasses on it is hard to see the whole spectrum and scale at the same time. However, it is still useful for what I wanted -- checking the smoothness of the light from LED lamps and CFLs. As others have noted, the slit is rather wide, but it's OK for me.

This spectroscope shows a spectra that generally matches a lab spectrometer which generates a plot of the frequency amplitudes. More range can be seen at the blue and red ends of the spectra by using a camera to take a picture of the spectrometer's image, but it is hard to line the camera up with the spectrometer and the spectrometer with the light source. The lab showed spikes for a specialty light source in the blue/purple, green, and orange areas with lower amplitude between those colors. The spikes could be seen on the spectroscope photo as 3 over saturated, blooming colors popping out of the rest of the rainbow of color at generally the same wavelengths as the lab measurements. There was not a way to dim the light source to get a better photo of the peak wavelengths. I would like a cell camera mount and light attenuation filters for better photos and 5 stars. Other than that, it works fine.

This is essentially the same spectroscope that I used in chemistry class to observe various light bulbs and burning chemicals. I am using it to test filters to see the wavelengths of light that they allow to pass. It works as expected. I really appreciate that the nanometer scale is so accurate. I tested its accuracy with a fluorescent bulb and a green laser (indirectly). See the attached images that show the respective wavelength patterns. I took the pictures by just placing my cell phone camera over the eye hole. This spectroscope is simple to use and seems durable.

I teach 8th grade physical science and use these as part of a station during our visible light unit. My students have no problem using them and they’re great in helping them visualize how light is made up of a spectrum of colors.

This spectroscope actually has a scale so you can tell which wavelengths are being absorbed. Unfortunately it is so blurry that it is useless. It is more than useless, it is very frustrating. Save your money. This item is crap.

It works great! Shows exactly the wavelength range of the light it's pointed at. Make sure all other lights except the one you are testing are turned off to get the most accurate reading. I used this for testing lights that I use in my photography darkroom. I also used it for making custom grow lights. It works great for the price.

Für ein paar € weniger bekommt man Selbstbaulösungen aus Pappe. Ich habe keinen Vergleich, außer den Infos aus dem Web, aber die haben anscheinend durchaus auch ihre Meriten. Meine Entscheidung: Basteln wollte ich nicht, und vor allem hat das hier ein Kunststoffgehäuse, und wird daher bei mir länger leben :-). Die Skala ist hier getrennt vom Schlitz. Das hat den Vorteil, dass die Skala getrennt beleuchtet und quasi eingeblendet wird, und daher besser ablesbar ist, wenn man eine schwache Lichtquelle untersuchen möchte. Der Nachteil ist, dass beides werksseitig genau aufeinander justiert werden muss, sonst liegt man daneben. Mit meinem Exemplar habe ich ein grün nachleuchtendes Kunstoffteil á la Lichtschalter untersucht. Das sollte auf 555 nm leuchten, weil für diese Wellenlänge das menschliche Auge am empfindlichsten ist, und genau den Wert habe ich auch abgelesen. Spektral"linien" wird man damit nicht sehen, weil der Spalt dafür zu breit ist. Auch bei meinem 555-nm-Luminophor war die "Linie" daher etwa 10 nm breit. Den Spalt könnte man natürlich auch abkleben, aber darunter leidet die Lichtstärke, und den Mittelwert bei einem Balken statt eines Strichs abzulesen, ist nicht so schwierig. Wenn Sie das nachvollziehen wollen: Vielfach gibt es noch als Straßenbeleuchtung die gelben Natriumdampflampen mit 589 nm. Oder Sie haben einen Laserpointer, dessen (monochromatische) Wellenlänge Sie kennen, steht in der Beschreibung. Bitte nicht direkt in den Spalt leuchten, sondern auf z.B. ein Blatt Papier! Interessant ist, damit auf "Spektraljagd" zu gehen. Ich z.B. dachte bisher immer, dass "weiße" LEDs blaues Licht emittieren, das durch gelbe Luminophore zu Weiß gemischt wird. Gelb ist Rot plus Grün, und mit dem Blau wird das zum Weiß. Ich hätte also zwei oder drei Farben erwartet, aber da war fast der komplette Regenbogen, bei einer billigen LED-Taschenlampe.

Funciona excelente, lo use para divulgación de la ciencia en una feria científica.

L'apparecchiatura è semplice ma ingegnosa. Utilissima la scala delle lunghezze d'onda inserita nel fondo. Trovo che questo semplice spettroscopio sia utilissimo per piccole esperienze quotidiane sull'analisi delle luci prodotte in una fiamma da elementi chimici diversi (sodio, potassio, fluoro, mercurio, ecc.).

No se ven las líneas de absorción del espectro solar.

Works as intended. Would have liked more or more detailed instructions but I spent some time with it and figured it out.