I have finally put together all of the electronics for my Geiger telescope. Unfortunately upon assembly I found that one of the tubes is not triggering. I suspect that the problem is not in the tube but in the level translator, as I am able to see healthy pulses by probing directly on the tube. Anyways here are the counts I recorded for each tube during a 2 minute run:

Tube 1: 27
Tube 2: 17
Tube 3: 0
Tube 4: 23

This corresponds to about $$10 min^{-1}$$. Given that the area of each tube is about $$10 cm^{2}$$ and the expected muon rate is on the order of $$1 \frac{cm^2}{min}$$ this rate seems right on the money. However this is far too small of a data-set to analyze. First order of business is to figure out whats up with tube number 3. Next up I need to write up an algorithm which would discriminate on the signals which pass through a pair of the tubes. Finally some bit plumbing needs is needed for persistent storage of the counts in the cloud.

I have to say this have been a much bigger project then I anticipated. Let's recap some new skills I picked up along the way:

• I learned to use my PCB mill to produce circuit boards.
• I built my first discrete component DC-DC High Voltage supply.
• I tried my hand at mechanical CAD and machining acrylic.
• Finally documented a project and posted the files on github.

The last item is really a first for me. I do hope however that this blog will host may more of my projects.