DELTA CASSIOPEIAE

Delta Cas is a typical main sequence star of spectral class A. It shows nice Hydrogen Balmer absorption lines which are useful for calibrating the spectra

GAMMA CASSIOPEIAE

Gamma Cas is a young, massive, hot, rapidly spinning star showing a Be type spectrum. The Hydrogen alpha emission line is from a disc of glowing hydogen which has been flung off from the star. Be stars are highly variable and show changes in their spectrum with time.

WR 1

 Wolf Rayet stars are massive hot stars near the end of their lives. Because they use up their hydrogen rapidly, they are relatively short lived and so are rather rare. Only around 150 are known in our galaxy. The bright emission lines are produced by the elements Carbon, Nitrogen and Oxygen formed by nuclear fusion. The next stage in the life of these stars may be a supernova explosion! There are a couple more WR star spectra here.

QSO 3C273

QSO 3C273 is the brightest Quasar in the sky and at mag 13 is just within the capabilities of this low resolution spectrograph. The redshift in the Hydrogen Alpha and Beta emission lines due to the expansion of the universe is clear. It works out at 15.8% which equates to a distance of approximately 2 billion (10^9) light years. An earlier measurement of this object and more details can be found here.