Make your own spectroscope

By Stephen Ashworth2013-11-01T15:32:00

$A photograph of a prism on a metal surface as it refracts light from a light source to produce a colour spectrum$

Source: Royal Society of Chemistry

Find out how to build your own spectroscope using an old DVD to explore colour and the splitting of light in this article from the ‘Avogadro’s lab’ series.

The key to the wonderful lights and colours we see is the structure of the atoms and molecules that produce or filter light. We can, however, turn this on its head and use light to obtain information about the structure of atoms and molecules. In order to obtain detailed information about this light, we need to split it into its component parts, just like we see in a rainbow.

Read on to learn how we can use a spectroscope to split up light, and find out how to make one yourself.

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