*Lead photo: Early experiments in Vermont with the Public Lab's infrared camera tool.* **Vermont is part of the [Northeast region](http://publiclab.org/wiki/northeast).** Public Lab organizers Chris Fastie and Ned Horning are involved in multispectral imaging hardware, multispectral image processing, control and monitoring of airborne cameras, agricultural and vegetation mapping and imaging, and spectroscopy. . . PLOTS and TAC join forces in Vermont Public Laboratory and the Toxics Action Center are collaborating on a project to apply Public Lab tools to several Vermont projects being investigated by TAC. Details of these projects are outlined here. . Recent Events . . LEAFFEST 2014 September 12-14, 2014 [Vermont Fall meetup](http://publiclab.org/tag/leaffest2014) . SNOWFEST 3D 2014 February 22&23, 2014 [Vermont winter meetup](http://publiclab.org/tag/snowfest) . Vermont Environmental Summit November 9, 2013 Chris Fastie led a workshop introducing Public Lab tools. . LEAFFEST 2013 September 7-8, 2013 [Learning Earth Appropriate Fact-Finding Environmental Science Tools](http://publiclab.org/tag/leaffest2013) . iFARM (NH) May 18, 2013 [Aerial and multispectral imaging and mapping for agricultural applications](http://publiclab.org/tag/ifarm) . Middlebury Meetup April 30, 2013 [An informal meeting to fly a camera over the Middlebury College Organic Farm](http://publiclab.org/notes/cfastie/05-02-2013/middlebury-meetup) . Montpelier Kite Mapping Workshop April 6, 2013 Chris Fastie led a workshop on aerial mapping with Public Lab tools. . Vermont Environmental Summit November 18, 2012 Chris Fastie led a workshop on aerial mapping with Public Lab tools. . LEAFFEST Low Elevation Aerial Flights For Earth Sensing Technology September 21-23, 2012 Here are some Research Notes on the activities at LEAFFEST 2012....
| Author | Comment | Last activity | Moderation | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cfastie | "Stu, Thanks for the lesson! It’s really good to get a feeling for these concepts. I wish you had been my high school teacher. TomH sent me a spre..." | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| straylight | "well done cfastie, thanks for taking the time to conduct some measurements. I've been pondering over the pattern and the angles for some time now. ..." | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| straylight | "oh yeah, Love the lego optical bench and the discussion in the other research note. stu " | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| cfastie | "I am glad you raised the question of how the distance to the slit could affect how much the light was bent when it hit the diffraction grating. Thi..." | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| Tom_H | "What you are observing here may be related to what is referred to as the "blaze" angle of the grating. For actual diffraction gratings, the indivi..." | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| Tom_H | "The basic grating equation works for transmission as well as reflection. The sign conventions can throw you though. One purpose of the collimatin..." | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| liz | "This is amazing! I also like Dan Beavers graphic :) " | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| cfastie | "Yes, now I have it. When the entrance slit is rotated the rectangular spectral image turns into a parallelogram. It seems to get compressed vertic..." | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| danbeavers | " I hope this illustrates what I mean. " | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| cfastie | "Tom, The Jobin Yvon tutorial describes reflection gratings, and I don't know enough to apply those rules to our transmission grating setups. The ma..." | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| danbeavers | "Chris, I am referring to the rotational alignment between the slit axis and the grating's ruling. What is the effect when the angles are rotated? " | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| cfastie | "Dan, I don't know what you mean by slit to grating angle. Angle g? Tom, I am reading now! " | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| Tom_H | "Great job! An optical bench from Legos --- super! Yes there are a lot of variables at work here. If you want to bend your mind a bit, read some of..." | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| danbeavers | "Great investigation! Another question is slit to grating angle. What effect does that have? What are the symptoms of misalignment? " | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| cfastie | "Jeff, Really good questions. I don’t think I can answer any of them from first principles. Focusing the image of the spectrum is one of the inscru..." | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| warren | "Oh, almost forgot my other question! Do the camera lens and aperture make any difference at all? You didn't use a camera for this... could you try ..." | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| warren | "Amazing. Two questions: does the distance between the camera and the grating affect focus? if we assume that for the design of a compact/useful s..." | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| warren | "https://spectralworkbench.org/sets/show/103 Is this an intensity experiment? Maybe dilution or shutter speed? " | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| warren | "I've been thinking along similar lines to Chris, and would also be very interested to learn more about how the kind of intensity-less matching he d..." | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| cfastie | "Adam, You must be right that some protocols for identifying substances require knowledge of the absolute intensity of spectral peaks. I am not fam..." | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| adam-griffith | "I was thinking that in order for users to identify an unknown substance, it would be necessary for differing intensities to be compared across spec..." | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| adam-griffith | "I was thinking that in order for users to identify an unknown substance, it would be necessary for differing intensities to be compared across spec..." | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| cfastie | "Adam, That's right, a narrower entrance slit allows emission or absorption lines to be resolved better. So you can know more precisely the wavelen..." | Read more » | over 11 years ago | |||
| adam-griffith | "Hi Chris, Great write up. So the impacts of narrowing the slit would be better resolution, but less light reaching the sensor - lower sensitivity..." | Read more » | over 11 years ago |