A high‐voltage vacuum spark emitting a continuum in the vacuum ultraviolet was triggered by the particles originating from a dense plasma produced by a laser beam focused onto a nearby solid target. The emitted radiation was used to observe absorption processes in the same laser plasma. Because of the fast transient phenomena occurring in this plasma, the delay‐time before spark breakdown had to be minimized. With the particular device used, the minimum delay‐time between laser pulse and continuum emission was found to be about 200 nsec with a jitter time of the order of 20 nsec. This delay‐time is too long to allow numerous observations of absorption by singly charged ions, but the applicability of the method to absorption studies on neutral species was demonstrated. Examples of absorption spectra from atoms of beryllium and magnesium are discussed.