Post subject: Re: Difficulties with the spectroscope
Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 12:26 am
Gemology Online Royal Princess
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2005 10:56 am Posts: 6461 Location: The frozen north prairie :-/
If it makes you feel any better, Brigitte, I've been studying gemology for about 13 years now and I still have a hard time with the spectroscope . Rarely am I able to see the spectra . The easiest stone to use, I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong), is a garnet. If you have one give it a go and see what you can see .
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Post subject: Re: Difficulties with the spectroscope
Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 5:59 am
Valued Contributor
Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2010 1:49 pm Posts: 331 Location: South Africa
Hi Brigitte,
Certainly not the easiest tool to master, not for me anyway. I have the hand held OPL diffraction model and I use it with a mini maglite (halogen).
It took me about 2 years before I saw my first clear spectrum, with the help of the before mentioned tutorial. Once seen it was a sort of 'eureka' moment and became much easier with practice. What I found helped was to cut out incident light and hold the maglite, stone and spectroscope in line with the scope just touching my eyelashes. With some movement of my eyes to the right or left the absorption lines became visible and clear.
A light to medium coloured garnet gives me a very clear spectrum. I do need to have a reference book next to me for identification as trying to remember the spectrum's of different gems is difficult if not done frequently.
Post subject: Re: Difficulties with the spectroscope
Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 6:34 am
Established Member
Joined: Tue Dec 17, 2013 3:50 am Posts: 25
Hi Brigitte,
I'm having fun trying to learn to use a hand-held spectroscope too. The thing that I've found most helpful so far has been to wedge the penlight in a mug facing upwards, and then place a piece of black card with a hole in it that is just smaller than the stone on top. Then I have both hands free to hold the stone just over the hole (or rest it in the hole!). That takes out any light that hasn't been through the gemstone. I'm finding that medium tone stones are giving me the best results: with the darker toned stones I'm not getting enough light through, and with the lighter toned stones I'm guessing that some of the absorbtions are too weak to see, at least for a novice like me!
Do you happen to have a zircon? That one gave me a nice sharp line at 653.5nm.
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