What I Did For 10 Weeks
Week One
Joe Shaw gave lectures on polarity and then assigned us to projects. I was assigned to work on a sky polarimeter with Jon and the aurora detector with Kendra.
Calibrated a laser and found it to be below specs.
Established a good setup to calibrate filters for the aurora detector and started testing.
Had daily classes to learn the programming language IDL.
Cleaned and rearranged optics equipment.
Week Two
Jon and I worked on calibrating the mount that the spectropolarimeter sits atop of. After the third day of working on it we had it down to a science.
Kendra and I finished the characterizations of the filters. The data was then plotted using MatLab and we talked with Joe to determine the next implications.
Week Three
Completed focal point testing on the lenses for the aurora detector.
Started to build an apparatus for field of view testing on the aurora detector.
We're discussing the current set up of the polarimeter and questioning whether we should switch mounts. The issue is that we need to take readings in the plane of scattering for the angle with which we're with respect to the sun. The equatorial mount we have is incapable of orienting itself to accommodate that need.
Completed a bread board prototype of the solar radiometer.
Week Four
The spectropolarimeter has ran into a bit of a road block and we may need to be getting another detector because it's unable to observe the near infrared wavelengths in the way we want.
With the aurora detector we've finished the set up for the field of view testing and started taking readings, but the PMTs initial results seem to be inconsistent.
Started soldering the circuit boards for the solar radiometers.
Week Five
A majority of the week was spent on the solar radiometer. Now the design is finished, everything is soldered, and it's put together. But it's not working, so let the troubleshooting begin.
The inconsistencies’ with the PMTs turned out to be that one wasn't plugged in. Now field of view testing is up and running again.
Week Six
A majority of this week was spent preparing for the mid-term presentation. We do two practice presentations with Joe and presented at the end of the week.
The radiometer issue ended up being a loose solder to the circuit board (I literally unsoldered and resoldered almost every connection to find it).
Week Seven
I noticed that the focal point for the PMTs wasn't correct, so we spent most of the week fixing that.
The issues that were had with the aurora detector's program were mostly resolved.
I made some parts in a 3D modeling program for the aurora detector. It looks like the casing we're currently planning on using won't be big enough.
The spectropolarimeter was calibrated for the visible light using an integration sphere.
Week Eight
I wrote a program to plot the data taken from the field of view tests. The results look good and we'll be moving on to calibration in the following week.
I started working on the website that's now this website.
Week Nine
The program we were using to run the aurora detector stopped working due to the license running out. After rummaging around the internet we found a free version of the program, but it's in French... Je ne parle pas francais.
It was concluded that the casing for the aurora detector wasn't going to be big enough, so a new one was purchased.
More work on this website was done.
Week Ten
Only time will tell....
Made necessary pieces to assemble the aurora detector.
Went to Yellowstone with Joe Shaw.
Gave final presentation.
Got packed up and went home.
