The Utrecht Atlas of the solar spectrum is a detailed inventory in graphical form of spectral lines observed in sunlight at the Sonnenborgh Observatory.
Full understanding of the significance of Fraunhofer lines required a huge amount of pioneering research in astrophysics and quantum theory.
Payne's work lead to a major study of the chemical abundances in the solar atmosphere undertaken by H. N. Russell, Walter S. Adams, and Charlotte Moore.
Around 1930, the procedures developed by Russell, Adams, and Moore were adapted by Minnaert and Mulders for determining chemical abundances in stellar photospheres.
[7][8] According to Minnaert at a seminar on the occasion of his 70th birthday:[3] In 1936 Mulders went to the Mt Wilson Observatory and took the plates for our Photometric Atlas, while Houtgast developed the modified, home-made instrument, which could be added to the microphotometer and gave direct intensity readings.