How do I make a good spectral line calibration source?
Go to Ace hardware and buy a 1/4″ steel ball bearing ($1.50) and a can of flat black spray paint ($4.00). Then go to Home Depot and buy a small 6″ battery operated fluorescent light and white 6″ fluorescent tube ($15.00) to fit the light body (if it doesn’t come with a tube) and four C cell alkaline batteries ($5.00) – the batteries are for the light. Find a clear location that you can see clearly from your telescope site. Mount the steel ball with a piece of tape or modeling clay to something that is dark in color (black would be best – like an old cardboard packing box you painted with flat black spray paint) a few feet off of the ground (it might require two boxes sitting on top on each other to get to the height of the chair seat. Sit the fluorescent light on a chair seat no closer than 2′ to the steel ball. Put a piece of cardboard in back of the lamp and paint both sides of the cardboard flat black so you don’t see the glow from the tube in the scope and you wont get any reflecti
