This groundbreaking device takes advantage of modern micro-manufacturing and CCD techniques to produce a visible light spectrometer with no moving parts that can create an instant spectrum of any source of light bright enough to be detected. The heart of the spectrometer is a monolithic etalon with a fixed linear CCD array that delivers wavelength and intensity information to your PC via a serial port link. The light to be analyzed is sampled through a flexible armored optical fiber probe attached to the spectrometer's robust steel case, making the instrument suitable for the teaching laboratory. The light reflected, transmitted or emitted by any object placed in front of the probe's 1mm end window is analyzed, allowing for the first time easy examination of the causes for the color appearance of common objects-printed paper, colored cloth, etc.-by comparison of their spectra with that of the light illuminating them. Standard emission spectra are equally quick and easy.

The spectrometer is controlled by the included software (Windows 95 or higher), which is laid out to require as little user intervention as possible. For instance, opening a new spectrum window causes the software to automatically make a spectrum reading and display the auto-scaled result. To adjust the degree of detail visible in lower-intensity peaks or to compensate for a weak light source, the user can adjust the integration time for the spectrum recording. Data files are easily exported to common spreadsheet programs for numerical analysis. The wavelength range recorded is 340nm to 900nm, with a resolution of 2.2nm