• Analog spectrometer w/ diffraction grating on slide
• Dark cloth
• USB webcam w/ mount

• Digital spectrometer
• Wall plug and USB cable
• Fiber optic cable
• Ring stand
  • 1 90-degree clamp
  • 1 three-finger clamp

• Discharge tube housing (with hydrogen or deuterium tube installed)
• Pedal on/on switch
• Desk lamp (with LED bulb)

NOTES:

• If possible, all groups should start with hydrogen (or deuterium, which is indistinguishable from regular hydrogen at the resolutions we are working at). However, if there are more groups than lamps, provide another suitable starting gas (such as mercury or nitrogen). Avoid argon, xenon, oxygen, and chlorine (because the spectra are more complicated) and avoid sodium (because it takes too long to warm up).
• The purpose of the pedal on/off is to prevent students from leaving the lamps on for long periods of time. (Suggested duty cycle is 10-20 seconds on, 10-20 seconds off.)
• Leave all discharge lamps mounted in the housing and suggest that students exchange a full housing (with a new lamp inside) rather than try to change bulbs. The bulbs are fragile and can be damaged by oils on the glass from handling with bare hands.
• Test all lamps to make sure they turn on and are steady.

• Additional gas discharge lamps, already mounted in housings
• Spare table lamps
• Additional screw-in bulbs for the table lamps, including the following:
  • LED
  • 40 W incandescent
  • Compact fluorescent
• Red, green, and blue USB-powered laser pointers

• Spare parts:
  • 1 analog spectrometer w/ dark cloth
  • 1 or more glass diffraction gratings
  • 1 USB webcam w/ mount
  • 1 digital spectrometer (w/ fiber optic cable, USB cable, and wall plug)
  • A couple wall plugs

On a designated “TA Computer”, download the following file: ta_spectra.zip. This file contains saved spectra of (nearly) all the possible spectra students can collect and can be used by the TA as a reference or demonstration piece.

Also, connect a spectrometer to the computer so that the TA can add or compare spectra to the saved references.