First, I had to make an upgrade to the DVD piece in my spectrometer this weekend, the way it was, it would get mis-aligned from time to time so I had to stabilize it in a more permanent fashion.

So what I did was use some high density yoga matting blocks, which are made out of a non compressible black foam material, which also I found has some light absorbing properties, so it works out very well and is very cost effective.

I cut them very precisely so the DVD piece would sit flush with the camera lens and keep the 45 degree angle intact. So I'm labeling this as Plab v2.5 (build 3.0.1)

Naturally I decided to run a battery of tests to check the alignment and resolution of the new upgrade and these are my results.

The picture below is the new upgrade for the DVD grating:

References: http://effemm2.de/become/guidance.html spekwin32 help and guidance site http://www.effemm2.de/spekwin/spekwin_man_2d_en.html#descatter http://www.effemm2.de/spekwin/spekwin_man_rech_en.html#raman http://omlc.org/spectra/PhotochemCAD/html/037.html

I also put these spectra's in a set: http://spectralworkbench.org/sets/3261 fluorescein 6 samples