Day 3

After a quick staff meeting and an overview of scientific abstracts, I started the day off by reviewing Dmitry's proposal and background information for the research we will be doing. Dmitry then taught us some more of the basics of optical physics. We learned about Rayleigh and Mie Scattering and spent a good amount of time focusing on image formation. We analyzed the creation of an image using a convex lens and connected it with the use of Snell's Law of Refraction to determine how rays of light from the object would bend when encountering the lens.

Snell's Law: n₁sinθ₁ = n₂sinθ₂
Where n is the refractive index of each material and theta is the angle with the respect to the normal of the ray of light within each material.

I read the first 50-some pages of the manual for the detector I'll be working with, detailing the setup, tuning, and calibration processes, and I'll finish the rest of it tonight. We're going to be using Python to control our detector, which is a wonderful coincidence, as I just started an online course to learn some of the Python basics a week or so ago, so I know a little starting out. I'm excited to be setting up our workspace and starting to collect data soon!