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A spectroscope behaves in a similar manner to that of a prism.

Except that instead of the light passing through a prism, it is reflected from a special surface called an optical grating. Or a diffraction grating.

A diffraction grating has a multitude of fine lines drawn across it to produce a saw-tooth pattern. One face of the saw tooth pattern is silvered so it reflects light.

(This is the pattern you see on one side of a CD.)

The lines may be as finely spaced 5000 lines/mm.

These reflection gratings (there can be transmission ones as well ) split the light beam into all its component colours.

So if the light from a remote star (well they are mostly remote aren't they?) can be split up by the grating, and analysed for the spectral lines of particular elements. Beats travelling there!

The 'rainbow' pattern you see on a CD will show this effect for similar reasons.

If you angle the light from a fluorescent light on your CD, you'll find that it is NOT a continuous rainbow spectrum. It will have a green area, and a red area, etc, but with fairly sharp boundaries between the colours.

These are the colours given off by the phosphors in the tube. If you try a tube with a different colour, you'll see a different pattern. And if you try some different CDs, you'll also see different patterns.

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