What I want to do or know
My desktop spectrometer 3 (using the public lab kit) appears to work, but it requires a lot of light. Pointing it directly at a bright sky works, but holding it at a slight angle immediately kills the signal. Same story with a bright light: holding it right up to the light works, anything indirect fails.
From the videos and articles I have the impression others' kits have higher sensitivity? How can I check/optimize my setup?
I'm using the collimation slit from the kit (0.2mm?).
That might be normal behavior for the spectrometer. The slit allows only a narrow beam of light to hit the diffraction grating. If the beam does not hit the grating at the correct place, the diffraction pattern will not be projected toward the camera. Smaller targets must be aligned just right so the light reaches the camera. I haven't used that version of the spectrometer. Adjusting all the angles could produce better results, and it might take some trial and error.
Chris
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