This research was mainly concerned with developing the apparatus (yet again on a limited budget) to measure the Ca II K emission variability of the solar chromosphere. Most studies up to this point used extremely large spectrometers and photomultiplier tubes, and were located at the bottom of a rather large solar observatory. We used a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, a ¾ metre spectrometer and an astronomical grade CCD (all readily available at UMR). The telescope was interfaced to the spectrometer via a fiber optic cable using a custom made mount on the telescope for the fiber, and a custom made optical array to couple the fiber to the spectrometer. The CCD was mounted in place of the spectrometer's exit slit.

The advantage of the setup that was used is that the CCD counteracts the lower resolution of the spectrometer. Unlike the PMT, which integrates the part of the spectrum coming through the exit slit of the spectrometer, the CCD doesn't necessarily need the presence of an exit slit, and it collects the spread of the spectrum exiting the spectrometer. In this instance the limiting resolution is the pixel width of the CCD.