Welcome

Montana Space Grant Consortium is pleased to be hosting the National Student Solar Spectrograph Competition in Bozeman, Montana at the campus of Montana State University.

This is your chance to build a ground based solar spectrograph as part of an undergraduate interdisciplinary team and then travel to “Big Sky” country to test it with a unique view of the sun found nowhere else.

The yearly National Student Solar Spectrograph Competition is MSGC’s Education Program for NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) mission.

NASA IRIS Media Gallery

Competition Dates

2012-2013 Competition - Spectrograph designs can begin in September 2012 and finish with the competition May 15-18, 2013 in Bozeman.

2013 Competition Schedule

2013 Competition Articles

2013 MSU News Article

2013 Hobart and William Smith News Article

2013 Bakersfield College News Article

2013 Eastern Washington University News Article

Why this Student Competition?

Ask yourself the following questions:

Are you looking for a real world design problem?

Do you want to participate on an interdisciplinary team?

Do you want to travel to the 'Big Sky' state?

Do you want experience with mechanical components, optics, electronics and software?

Do you want a chance to win scholarship and travel prizes?

If you answered yes to these questions then this competition is for you! Get your team together and register today.

Bozeman & Southwest Montana

News Updates

Solar Flare Footage

What is a Spectrograph?

Build Your Own Fold Up Spectrograph!

A Spectrograph is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum by separating an incoming wave into a frequency spectrum. Spectrographs have a wide range of complexity from as simple as a prism to the cutting edge IRIS spectrograph.