Astronomical Spectroscopy for Amateurs

Ken Harrison was born in Scotland where he trained as a mechanical engineer. He has been designing and building telescopes since the early 1960’s and has built a series of spectroscopes for use on medium sized amateur telescopes. He was Section Director of the Astronomical Society of Victoria, Australia, Astrophotographic Section for ten years and past President of the Society. Harrison’s university thesis (and his first publication) was Design and Construction of the Isaac Newton 98-inch Telescope (Strathclyde University, 1970). Since then he has published many articles on optical design, including “Blink Comparison” (BAA Journal Vol87, p94) and “Method of Radially Supporting Large Mirrors” (Vol87, p154). He has made contributions to the Astronomical Society of Victoria Newsletter and was for three years the Editor of the ‘N’Daba’ newsletter of the Natal Centre, Astronomical Society of Southern Africa.

Preface.- Part I: Introduction to Spectroscopy.- Chapter 1: Early Experiments in Spectroscopy.- Chapter 2: A History of Astronomical Spectroscopy.- Chapter 3: Theory of Spectra.- Chapter 4: Prisms, Gratings, and Spectroscopes.- Chapter 5: Types of Spectroscopes.- Part II: Obtaining and Analyzing Specta.- Chapter 6: Setting Up the Spectroscope.- Chapter 7: Using Spectroscopes in the Converging Beam.- Chapter 8: Reflection Grating Spectroscopes.- Chapter 9: Cameras and CCD's.- Chapter 10: Processing Spectra.- Chapter 11: Amateur Spectroscope Projects.- Part III: Spectroscope Design and Construction.- Chapter 12: Design Basics.- Chapter 13: Prism Spectroscope Designs.- Chapter 14: Transmission Grating Spectroscope Designs.- Chapter 15: Reflection Grating Spectroscopes Designs.- Chapter 16: Guiding, OAG, and Beam Splitters/Flip Mirrors.- Appendix A: Suppliers of Spectroscopes and Accessories.- Appendix B: Useful Spectroscopy Forums and Other Websites.- Appendix C: Selected Bibliography.- Appendx D: Springer Extra Materials and Yahoo Support Group.- Index.