For those who want to know what I do in "real life" this is what I have been doing for the last two-three years. This instrument will soon (the end of January) be shipped to be mounted on a satellite which will orbit Earth. The instrument will stare at the sun for the duration of the mission (three years) to measure the total sun irradiance or energy. This will help scientists get a grasp on sun variability. The mission is part of NASA's Glory project glory.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html
I am the lead Electronics Engineer for this instrument which was developed and built at the University of Colorado in Boulder.