I like to dabble in a variety of scientific topics either for personal fun or outreach.  My professional page is here.

If you have comments, suggestions, or use or expand on any of these, please let me know!

Here's a list of recent projects: (new to old)

Spectroheliograph -- in progress

I'm developing a simple version of the sunscan spectroheliograph.  (To be clear: the sunscan is amazing, but I'm trying to see if you can make a simple inexpensive "student version" with decent quality.)

Software for Telescopes -- in progress

I'm been writing some scripts to help speed up alignment for my telescope. 

Cosmic Ray Detection -- in progress

I'm developing a simple expansion cloud chamber to observe cosmic rays.  The goal is reliability and aesthetics.

Solar Telescope Projectors -- failed!

I was trying to make a super high quality safe solar viewer, but couldn't balance robustness with safety in a satisfactory manner. (PVC based large viewers get too hot and cardboard ones are not rigid enough!)  I you are interested the original developers did a great job and have several excellent designs for diy.  Extremely large ones are best left to the professionals.

Stellar Interferometry

Interferometry for amateurs -- measure the diameter of Venus with a simple mask interferometer.  Here's a mildly technical writeup, but you can ignore the technical analysis, as it is easy to do in practice for a backyard astronomer.

Radio Astronomy

Some notes on a simple radio telescope to measure the rotation of our Milky Way Galaxy.  There are many tutorials available, so here's a few thoughts on a simple one that is great for demos.

Dinosaurs, Athletes and Scientists

Discovery Adventures -- find dinosaurs, scientists, baseball and soccer players, near your home or on a trip.  Designed for ages 8-80! As far as I know these all work, but they are not guaranteed -- use at your own risk. Also note that the dinosaur locations are  mostly on private property, so you can't visit them.

Monopoly

Here's an old technical paper that came out of a student project . The main point is: "It's not your imagination, Monopoly games often do last forever"

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Contact: ejf 111 icsi222@333gmail.com (remove all numbers from this!)