Question: What light sources might I use to calibrate my spectrometer if I don’t have a CFL available?

Thank you for this idea! I have laser pointers in a few colors in my house that I can try out.

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kgradow1 wrote:

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Could you use a laser pointer and still go through the same workflow with @cfastie's reference image? I'm not sure if the peaks would line up, they would presumably need to be the same wavelengths. But it seems like in theory you should be able to match anything that gives you a discrete peak at a known wavelength.

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Found something.It's a YouTube post by chem_talk on neodymium. It's a long way from complete, but according to the post, this rare earth isn't rare. And it shows a spectrum ( it's in the early part of the post)on absorbance, and florescence, both of which show good bands. The post is titled "neodymium compound, colors, and magnets". Still a lot of distance to go... But the video is a start. And neodymium magnets are relatively easy to find.

Of you take a look at commercial instruments, they will usually use holmium oxide or other holmium salts for calibration. Great. These salts are quite expensive. The neodymium salts look like they show many of the same bands and they are not expensive. But neodymium salts will take some development.