A lot of information can be found at the Forum for Amateur Astro-Spectroscopy (FAAS) ....
The following amateur astronomers have many years practical experience in spectroscopy at the telescope. It was to form a sidebar to my 1999 August S&T article Cosmic Rainbows - a revival of amateur spectroscopy but referenced here.
If you are an experienced astro-spectroscopist email me for inclusion. Please provide a brief summary or cv ie your spectro interests, what your day job is, your home town/city or workplace and a thumbnail portrait.
Cyril
Bazin [technician in precision optics at Laboratory Charles Fabry -
France] has made various optics including 0.4m f/3.6 Newtonian [for deepsky
observations] and a 70 mm 30° OG prism with associated 1m fl OG for
producing stellar spectrograms.
Tom
Buchanan [geotechnical engineer in Atlanta - GA - USA] has been an
amateur spectroscopist since 1959. The first home-made spectrograph
was described in Feb'80 S&T. His third one provides reference
marks along the spectrum when operated in the slitless mode. He provided
many spectra to the International Halley Watch and recorded sodium in the
tail of Comet Hale-Bopp in early March 1997.
Fred
Veio [retired bacteriologist of Clearlake Park - CA - USA]
has been an amateur astronomer since 1946 - specializing in building transportable
spectrohelioscopes for the last 40 years. He shares his expertise
via his privately published book The Spectrohelioscope
now available on the web. A number of amateurs world-wide have followed
his example.
Dale
Mais [pharmacologist for biotech company in San Diego - CA - USA] has
been an amateur astronomer for almost 40 years and recently branched out
into spectroscopy. He's current exploring rare elements in stars
[like Technetium in 19 Piscium] via the SBIG spectrometer on his 14-inch
Celestron SCT from home near Mt Palomar.
Steve
Dearden [analytical chemist for Kodak Polychrome Graphics - MA -USA]
has built prism and grating spectrographs whilst working in France. Now
using a commercial spectrograph with linear CCD on his telescope. He has
reviewed commercial spectrographs on the FAAS site [above].
Valerie Desnoux [X-ray imaging system manager for General Electric
Medical - based in Paris] is a pioneer in amateur spectroscopy in France
and team member of T60 at Pic du Midi from 1989-96 with a passion for novae,
Be and Mira stars. Has designed 'Visual Spec' software to help amateurs
extract useful data from their spectra.
Nick
Glumac
[formerly Prof.of Mech. Engineering at Rutgers - State University
of New Jersey now at University of Illinois - USA] co-authored and built
the prototype featured in the Feb'99 S&T article 'Building a Fiber-Optic
Spectrograph'. He has since built a variety of compact focal plane spectrographs
with MX516 CCD detector and recently recorded ammonia in Jupiter's atmosphere.
The
CAOS
[Club of Amateurs in Optical Spectroscopy] team are specialist engineers
at the ESO HQ in Munich - Germany performing spectroscopy in their spare
time via a 10-inch Meade SCT with fibre-optic feed to a static spectrograph
and Hale CCD camera. Mentor Juan is an astronomer at the Capodimonte Observatory
- Naples Italy.
Don Davies - (physicist in Redonda Beach - CA - USA) has used his home-made
spectrograph and Cookbook CCD camera on a 17-inch Dobsonian 'scope (equatorial
platform) to investigate the phase variations of Beta Lyrae hydrogen and
helium emission lines. He has recently detected ammonia in Jupiter's atmosphere.
James
Bryan - (accountant of Georgetown - Texas - USA) has a 16-inch Ritchey-Chretien
telescope with an Optomechanics Research Model 10-C spectrograph and Photometrics
Star I CCD camera. He is investigating Beta Lyrae ['scope + spectrogram
featured in Aug'99 S&T] for small inter periodic variations with the
aid of the Astronomy Department of the University of Texas - Austin.
Tom Kaye (paintball gun manufacturer of Chicago - IL - relocated in
Arizona - USA) has succeeded in detecting the subtle radial velocities
of nearby stars with a home-made spectrograph using a fibreoptic feed to
his 16" Meade LX200 with SBIG ST-7 + Apogee AP7 detectors. He is using
IRAF cross correlation techniques to measure relative velocities ~200m/s
on the extra-solar planet orbiting Tau Bootis. 1.1m 'scope with spherical
optics in progress.
Ernst
Pollmann - (physics assistant for Textar - Leverkusen - Germany)
has been co-operating with professional astronomers at the Space Sciences
Center - Los Angeles, by monitoring Be stars now with a 20cm SCT at f/3.8
and matched homebuilt Cassegrain spectrograph; R=16000.
Guenter Gebhard - (gym instructor of Neumarkt - Germany) has developed
various spectrographs using fibreoptic feeds to record high resolution
stellar spectra.
Christian Buil - (optician for French Space Agency - Toulouse - France)
is a pioneer in the use of CCDs and spectroscopy since 1985 with the 60cm
telescope at the Pic du Midi Observatory in the French Pyrenees via the
amateur 'Association T60' of which he is a founding member.
James
Weightman - (software developer of Cirencester - England) is using
his 5-inch Celestron SCT with Starlight MX5-M CCD camera and Rainbow Optics
grating to record stellar spectra.
Maurice Gavin - (architect of Worcester Park - England) has a longstanding
interest in spectroscopy with related articles published in S&T, CCD
Astronomy, Astronomy Now, BAA Journal, Webb Soc Journal etc. He is past-president
of the British Astronomical Association [1996-97].