Time-resolved emission experiments on deflagrating metastable interstitial composites of nano-aluminum and nano-molybdenum trioxide were performed. Early in the experiment (before disassembly of the sample) the temperature obtained by fitting to a Planckian gray body appears accurate to better than +/-100 K (at 3200 K). Spectral features due to Al and AlO species were observed on top of an apparent thermal background. The intensity of the AlO emission was observed to change with the ratio Al/MoO(3), with larger AlO intensities associated with faster wave propagation speeds. Absolute irradiance output from the compressed powder samples was found to exceed that from a tungsten filament at the same apparent temperature.