I was told yesterday that March is now the hottest month of the year in Ghana. Since I've been here, the temperature has been in the high 80's and relative humidity between 70% and 80% each day. It's only 11:15am and the temperature outside is 88 degrees. Some of you know how much I complained during the winter. Well, I'm complaining in Ghana as well. Thank God my office and bedroom are air conditioned and so I don't have to melt for too long.
QCLOPS has been doing well so far. Last week, we ran it at a short distance since we did not want people going across the laser beam while we were collecting data. The goal this week is to run it at a distance of about 137ft. Due to heavy human traffic (students), we will be mounting the retro reflector on a wall. We need it to be high enough that no one can interfere with our signal. The new mount is still under construction in the machine shop. It's taking them a while but they are almost done.
One question we had in mind was how far we could change the distance between the retro-reflector and the launch mirror and still see a high enough return signal. On monday, we tested this on the porch right infront of the lab. Our lab is on the third floor. To do this, we had to bring everything out and run it (ie. without air conditioning). We were able to go beyond 137ft and still get a return signal. This meant we did not have any excuse not to see a signal at the actual designated location. As we sat out aligning, there were a lot of curious students who stopped by and asked us to explain to them what we were doing. I really enjoyed talking to them. They were excited to see something practical......science in action!
On tuesday we placed the retro-reflector at the designated location and we were able to see a signal!! We ran the system overnight, blocking off the porch, till this morning.See pictures!
Today, I got the chance to speak to the 3rd year physics students. They were in about 4 different groups. I think there were a total of about 40 students. That was interesting. Some of them were very interested in the equipment. Although it was tiring, I enjoyed it very much.
~Ekua
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Visiting the fishing village
This post is about what happened last week friday (20th March).
I went out to lunch with the laser center folks. We had a good time talking about everything possible. After lunch, Dr Eghan, I and a couple of others decided to go to the head of the physics dept's house (the laser center is under the physics dept). He wasn't too well and so wasn't at school that day. As a sign of respect, Dr Eghan had to officially take me to see him and give a brief report on why I was in Ghana. Even though he knew already about why I was there, this had to be done.
The University of Cape Coast (UCC) is near the coast (as the name implies) and so there are a number of fishing villages within driving distance. Since our ultimate goal is to investigate the constituents of smoke from wood burning, especially in fishing villages, we decided to pay one such village a visit.
The men here go to sea while the women dry the fish over burning wood. This is known as fish smoking. The "oven" used in smoking fish is called the "chorkor smoker". These women spend long hours breathing the smoke which could be harmful to their health.
We wanted to see what logistical things we would need to have in place if we decided to deploy an open path system in the midst of these women in order to study the gas constituent of the smoke.
Dr Eghan (the coordinator of the laser center), Charles (the UCC master degree student I've been working with) and I set off at about 4:30pm in Dr Eghan's car to one of the villages in Elmina. Within about 12 minutes we were at our destination. We packed the car and strolled through narrow passage ways till we came to where all the fishing boats were docked. We stood there for a while watching the fishermen revving their (loud) boat engines and setting off to the sea.
We then went to the other side of the village, to where the women smoke fish. We explained to them what were trying to do and asked if we could take a couple of pictures. We spoke particularly to one woman who was smoking fish with her daughter. Their eyes were tearing with all the smoke that was coming out of the burner. After taking pictures of mother and daughter and the smoker, we asked the daughter to take a couple of pictures of us. Well, she kinda cut of both Dr Eghan and Charles head from the picture. She tried about 3 times. It was too funny. I've included one of her shots in the pictures. Luckily, a young guy walked by and helped us out. We then headed back to campus.
The pictures show us at Elmina, the chorkor smoker and then a woman and her daughter smoking fish.
~Ekua
I went out to lunch with the laser center folks. We had a good time talking about everything possible. After lunch, Dr Eghan, I and a couple of others decided to go to the head of the physics dept's house (the laser center is under the physics dept). He wasn't too well and so wasn't at school that day. As a sign of respect, Dr Eghan had to officially take me to see him and give a brief report on why I was in Ghana. Even though he knew already about why I was there, this had to be done.
The University of Cape Coast (UCC) is near the coast (as the name implies) and so there are a number of fishing villages within driving distance. Since our ultimate goal is to investigate the constituents of smoke from wood burning, especially in fishing villages, we decided to pay one such village a visit.
The men here go to sea while the women dry the fish over burning wood. This is known as fish smoking. The "oven" used in smoking fish is called the "chorkor smoker". These women spend long hours breathing the smoke which could be harmful to their health.
We wanted to see what logistical things we would need to have in place if we decided to deploy an open path system in the midst of these women in order to study the gas constituent of the smoke.
Dr Eghan (the coordinator of the laser center), Charles (the UCC master degree student I've been working with) and I set off at about 4:30pm in Dr Eghan's car to one of the villages in Elmina. Within about 12 minutes we were at our destination. We packed the car and strolled through narrow passage ways till we came to where all the fishing boats were docked. We stood there for a while watching the fishermen revving their (loud) boat engines and setting off to the sea.
We then went to the other side of the village, to where the women smoke fish. We explained to them what were trying to do and asked if we could take a couple of pictures. We spoke particularly to one woman who was smoking fish with her daughter. Their eyes were tearing with all the smoke that was coming out of the burner. After taking pictures of mother and daughter and the smoker, we asked the daughter to take a couple of pictures of us. Well, she kinda cut of both Dr Eghan and Charles head from the picture. She tried about 3 times. It was too funny. I've included one of her shots in the pictures. Luckily, a young guy walked by and helped us out. We then headed back to campus.
The pictures show us at Elmina, the chorkor smoker and then a woman and her daughter smoking fish.
~Ekua
Monday, March 23, 2009
Welcome to the MIRTHE in Ghana blog
Finally, finally, finally, I'm posting something on this blog :-). Thanks to all the Princeton folks who made the packing and shipping of QCLOPS a lot easier than it would have been.
QCLOPS was taken out of Princeton on the 6th of March, 2009 and arrived in Ghana on the 9th of March. Yes, we were all surprised as to how quickly it made it over. The next question was how quickly we could get it through customs. That also went smoothly. By the 13th, both QCLOPS boxes were at the University of Cape Coast. This is the site of our deployment.
We started unpacking on tuesday, the 17th of March and had the system running by evening time of the 18th.
I was given a hearty welcome by the folks at the laser centre. Working with them has been good.
~Ekua
QCLOPS was taken out of Princeton on the 6th of March, 2009 and arrived in Ghana on the 9th of March. Yes, we were all surprised as to how quickly it made it over. The next question was how quickly we could get it through customs. That also went smoothly. By the 13th, both QCLOPS boxes were at the University of Cape Coast. This is the site of our deployment.
We started unpacking on tuesday, the 17th of March and had the system running by evening time of the 18th.
I was given a hearty welcome by the folks at the laser centre. Working with them has been good.
~Ekua
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