Introduction
Welcome to the world
of spectroscopy !
Alpy is a modular product line, allowing you to
start in spectroscopy in a very easy way, and progress
up to producing high quality spectra on astronomical
objects. Alpy 600 is the main module in this family.
It has several operating modes. You can use it visu-
ally, on different light sources as well as on stars with
a telescope. You can also take pictures to share what
you see, and make scientific measurements : you’ll
be surprised how far you can go in astrophysics with
such a basic instrument. For instance, you’ll be able
to measure the temperature of a star, define its spec-
tral class, measure the expansion velocity of a nova,
observe the emission line of a Be star
1
, measure the
expansion of the universe, and so on.
The Alpy 600 design meets several objectives:
– To offer an instrument which is easy to start with
and fun to use, but which is also powerful enough
for people who want to go deeper into the science.
There is no compromise on the spectrum quality:
the optics are specially designed for this spectro-
scope.
– To provide an affordable and scalable instrument.
Several additional modules are available. You can
use the Alpy 600 module alone to produce high
quality spectra, but adding the guiding and/or cal-
ibration modules will make your astronomical ob-
servations much easier and more productive.
– To be easily adaptable to your own setup (tele-
scope, camera...). the mechanical interfaces are
standard, and allow many different usages.
– In spectroscopy, there are different kinds of in-
strument : slitless, with slit, or with fiber optics.
All of them have advantages and drawbacks: It is
the type of observation which defines the optimal
configuration. The Alpy 600 allows all of them!
Then, you can decide for yourself what is best in
your case.
Prerequisites
Spectroscopy is a very large subject. Some parts are
very easy. For instance, looking visually at a spectrum,
during daylight or with a star, requires no experience.
However, if you want to take images or make scien-
tific measurements, it is highly recommended to have
some experience with your instrument - telescope and
camera. In this document, we assume that you’re new
to spectroscopy, but that you’re already familiar with
the basics of astrophotography. Specifically, we’ll not
cover here the following points:
– Setting up and tuning your telescope. You must be
able to point and track a star. Ideally, you should
have autoguiding (with external parallel optics,
off-axis or with the Alpy guiding module).
– Installing, starting and using most common soft-
ware. You should have a PC available, running un-
der Windows (we use MS Windows 7 in this doc-
ument).
– Astronomical imaging. You should know what is
a dark, an offset, a flat field and classical image
processing.
If you’ve already made some deep sky im-
ages, with long exposure and good process-
ing, moving to spectroscopy will be easy for you
- a new adventure which gives access to a new
dimension.
Recommended learning path
Here is a proposed learning path to guide you step
by step through the discovery of your Alpy 600:
– First, use the Alpy 600 in slit mode (as it is con-
figured in our factory), during daylight.
– start by looking at some lamps and daylight spec-
tra - the Sun spectrum, in fact.
– record images and reduce data.
– Secondly, change to slitless configuration, and in-
stall the Alpy 600 on your telescope.
– start first with visual observation of some bright
stars,
– then record & process star spectra images.
– Lastly, take star and extended object spectra in slit
mode.
This document follows this path.
Software
The Alpy 600 is shipped with a CD-ROM containing
all the software tools you need to observe and process
your data. These software are free - you can find their
latest versions on the web. Of course, you can use
your own software if you prefer. In this document,
1. http://arasbeam.free.fr/
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