Optics Meeting Schedule

This page summarizes a course outline for introducing new (general) members to the UTAT SS Optics Team. The following calendar shows a list of topics covered at the Optics general meetings.

Some of these presentations will be prepared for future years (optical coatings, history of microscope, detector technology). Adherence to the below schedule is not guaranteed given unforeseen circumstances and the inevitable limitation on free time.

Fall 2024	Topics covered	Reading for next week
Sept. 14	* Onboarding General Meeting.

Subsystem Expo. | Technical onboarding | | Sept. 21 | * Optics in a (Fairly Large) Nutshell (link)
Roadmap and Semester Status Update | Chapter 23 in Giancoli 2014 | | Sept. 28 | * Introduction to our Notion Page
Review of Geometric Optics.
Hubble Space Telescope Presentation. | Chapter 24 in Giancoli 2014 | | Oct. 5 | * Review of Physical Optics (I/II).
Operating Principles of Spectrometers. | Chapter 24 in Giancoli 2014 | | Oct. 11 | No Session, Thanksgiving | | | Oct. 19 | * Review of Physical Optics (II/II).
A Closer Look at Optical Coatings. | Chapter 25 in Giancoli 2014 | | Oct. 26 | * Review of Optical Instruments.
History: Development of Microscope and Telescope. | Paper 1 | | Nov. 2 | No Session, Reading Week | | | Nov. 9 | * Geometric Optics Design of FINCH EYE | Paper 2 | | Nov. 16 | * ZEMAX Tutorial: Design of Singlet Lens (I/II) | Article 1, Article 2, Article 3 | | Nov. 23 | * ZEMAX Tutorial: Design of Singlet Lens (II/II) | Article 1, Article 2 | | Nov. 30 | * ZEMAX Tutorial: Build a Spectrometer (I/II) | Article 3, Article 4 | | Dec. 7 | * ZEMAX Tutorial: Build a Spectrometer (II/II) | | | Dec. 14 | No Session, Final Exams. Next meeting in 2025 | |

The information in the tables below is not finalized. (The second semester is currently being planned).

Winter	Topics covered	Reading for next week
	detector technology. Overview of SWIR options	thorlabs page
	SNR: radiative transfer and derivation
	SNR: design implications
	Design framework for FINCH EYE

geometric optics
SNR calculations | | | | ZEMAX implementation of Build I
assessment of aberrations
tolerance analysis | | | | A glimpse into objective lenses: some opto-mechanics, selection. | | | | Achromatic doublet: battling dispersion. design, examples. | | | | Window: radiation resistant glass, space optics considerations. | | | | VPH grism: working principle, zemax model, modelling diffraction efficiency. | | | | | |

Summer	Topics covered	Notes, Reading for next week
May 10, 2025	UTAT Space Systems Summer Kickoff
May 17, 2025	Victoria Day - No meetings
May 24, 2025	UTAT SS, Subsystem Introductions
payload teams (optics, pay-mech, mech, thermal) meet & describe payload design from high level
~~Optics presents: FINCH EYE in a (Very Large) Nutshell~~	1 hour presentations, 1 hour ask questions to leads & decide which subsystem to commit to.
Technical onboarding.
May 31, 2025	Introduction of Summer Curriculum
Geometric Optics Tutorial	Read Ch. 23 in Giancoli 2014
June 7, 2025	Geometric Optics Design of FINCH EYE	Read the respective Notion page
June 14, 2025	Onboarding project kickoff
Optics together w/ Pay-mech	[IS: create Notion Page w/ instructions]
June 21, 2025	ZEMAX Tutorial 1: Becoming acquainted with interface, analysis and design of simple lenses (achromat objective).	Applicable ZEMAX Knowledgebase articles.
June 28, 2025	ZEMAX Tutorial 2: optimization of basic lenses, on example of telescope objective.	Applicable ZEMAX knowledgebase articles.
July 5, 2025	Presentation: History of Telescopes
July 12, 2025	Laboratory Day: demonstrate camera, alignment, etc.
July 19, 2025	Onboarding project check-in, potentially w/ pay-mech
July 26, 2025	Presenting Onboarding Project to whole group in general + systems.
Optics: next steps for involvement with UTAT SS Optics.
Onwards	Summer break.