Field Session
The first half of every summer, second year undergraduate Engineering Physics majors take the Physics Field Session course. This experience gives physics students valuable hands-on experience with optics, vacuum systems, electronics, software, and machine shop. Within the course, small groups of students spend about four full days learning about CNC machining and assembling a 10X magnification spyglass (terrestrial telescope).
Even though CNC machining is one focus of Physics Field Session, there is still plenty of handwork required to finish, assemble, and align components. Students learn the difference between a theoretical telescope in a textbook and the working version they hold in their hands. Learning by doing, students realize that building something doesn’t always go as planned.
In the end, students take away a working telescope, through which you can see people walking on top of South Table Mountain, well over a mile away. We discuss the historical significance of these devices and how, not so long ago, they were considered cutting-edge technology. So much so that, during the Civil War, Signal Corps officers were adjured, when faced with imminent capture, to destroy their telescopes to prevent their enemies from acquiring them.
