Courses: Astr1, Astr2, Astr15, P1, P4, P5, P14, P16, P19, P82
A tower of gas discharge tubes and an incandescent bulb. The white bulb will overpower the spectra from the tubes, so turn on the white light first, to show a continuous spectrum, and then turn it off and the discharge tubes on. We usually have neon, hydrogen, and helium as good examples, but others can be swapped in if you prefer. We also have a separate sodium lamp. We have a supply of small pieces of diffraction grating for students to look through. It's necessary to tell them to look to the side of the lamps to see the spectra, and also to have them rotate the grating until the image is visible to the side, rather than above and below, the tubes.
