EISCO Premium Quantitative Spectroscope - 400-700nm Range, 5nm Accuracy

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.

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.

This is a cheap spectrometer and you get what you pay for. This is not a bad thing if you realize this from the get go. If you plan on doing detailed spectroscopy, splurge your money elsewhere. The slit is a mm or two wide, making the spectral bands also a mm or two wide. This corresponds to a relatively wide wavelength variation of about 20-30nm. The wavelength scale also needs to back lit making reading a source in the dark troublesome. As stated these "problems" should be realized from the get go. It is cheap, but does separate the radiation into its constituents while providing a rough scale to take measurements from. This leads to a person being able to get hours of learning from this product, all at an affordable price.

I liked that this spectroscope was cheap. It can be improved by cleaning up the slit where there was excess plastic from the injection molding. The next improvement was to make a more narrow slit out of two pieces of aluminum foil taped on the slit with the straight edges of the foil used closer together than the existing slit. These pieces could also be moved to change the slit size. I chose this over razor blades to keep it safer for my daughter. Next I plan to carefully open it up and cover the inside with black felt or matte black tape of some sort. The reflections inside the box produce extra spectrums that can overlap with the one of interest causing confusion.

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!

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.

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.

The instrument is fully functional; however, it was mailed in a flimsy envelope and was cracked. Amazon replaced the item without needing the cracked one to be returned. Try this with a Tesla coil!