Josh Liberman – Extreme Wavefront Control Lab

SPIE 2026 Wrapped: A Campaign in Copenhagen

*This blog post provides a belated summary of the various exploits of MagAO-X team members at the 2026 SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.*

Day 0

We began our conference journey with the registration of participants and their respective guests (human and otherwise). In fact, there were so many MagAO-X affiliates in attendance that they would not have all fit into one photo.

Our featured guests in attendance included the Danish stoat accompanied by one Dr. Jared Males.

People (and stoat) have all been issued their SPIE access cards.

Day 1

The day started off on a high note with a review talk from Dr. Laird Close on MagAO-X’s famed H-alpha imaging mode.

This is the most famous artist rendering of a MagAO-X discovery.

Elena then gave an excellent talk on the first on-sky demo of the FAST SCC.

It’s so fast that I couldn’t even get a picture in time.

Daily Poster Roundup

Today’s poster session featured friend of MagAO-X, Dr. Jaren Ashcraft (well…half of him to be specific), Elena featured again (but this time w/ the PIAACMC), Dhwanil with coronagraphy + wavefront sensing, and Eden with blue Beta Pic b.

The powers of Leiden and Arizona combine

We end the day with a beautiful sunset…

Day 2

On the 2nd day of SPIE, the conference gave to me…

Haffert 2019…

MagAO-X data…

Yankie chocolate bar…

Eugenia’s award-winning poster…

Dr. Hom’s Roman CGI talk…

And some brooken coffee machines.

Meanwhile…

In a deep, dark lair (that was definitely not a Danish hotel), a daring villain was devising a dastardly deed.

With the utmost care, he cracked open a safe and withdrew a wheel of Gouda cheese (but left the passport).

Assisted by an unnamed accomplice, this person of interest cubed the cheese in preparation for a bread and cheese platter that would later be offered to SPIE conference attendees.

(To be continued)

Face redacted due to the sensitive nature of the ongoing investigation

Daily Poster Roundup

Adam in front of the accordion (his poster is the first one on the left)

Dr. Maggie Kautz has graduated from ground- to space-based telescopes.

Day 3

We have reached the third day of the conference and energy is running high.

Dr. Sebastiaan Haffert told us all about quantum-optimal coronagraphs.

Jared then provided us with an exciting overview of the GMagAO-X instrument and its projected capabilities.

Dr. Lauren Schatz guided us through the history + awe-inspiring power of laser guide stars.

Bonus points for the rabbit + laser beam logo.

And Katie gave an excellent talk on correcting dispersion within MagAO-X.

It was then time for the lunch break, where the results of yesterday’s cheesetivities were revealed:

The cheese received rave reviews:

And now back to our regularly scheduled SPIE programming.

Laird gave a secret talk on his homemade telescope for measuring sky brightness in the near IR:

This Zemax model brings back fond memories of my lens design course..

Poster Roundup

Dr. Jay Kueny’s loud and proud ffortissimo poster

Eugenia’s award-winning poster viewed up close.

Jialin presenting her data reduction pipeline (NALEd it!)

Sebastiaan presenting Sebastiaan’s poster.

The day ended with a green flash.

Day 4

Surprise, it’s a twin! Dr. Matthijs Mars presented his digital twin of MagAO-X.

Unfortunately, I could not find a picture of Dr. Rico Landman presenting his work on the unmodulated pyramid wavefront sensor. However, you can reference this highly academic source for details.

Various MagAO-X members also explored the SPIE exhibition hall and took selfies in front of various optics.

SPIE wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, but a good bit of it was.

Poster Roundup

Everyone say “DECam medium band filter!”

Dr. Kyle van Gorkom delivering a poster on SCOOB.

Day 5

We are nearing the end of our journey through the astronomical instrumentation universe. But stick around dear reader because we’re not done yet!

Eden kicked things off for the MagAO-X group with a sparkling presentation on pyramid wavefront sensor optical gain:

Parker gave us good vibes with his talk on vibration control using accelerometers:

Here is a summary of the evening shenanigans:

This is the only hidden caption that I wrote. Congratulations if you found it! You may come to my office to redeem your prize (it may or may not be CheezIts from a snack drawer). — The dynamic duo of Jay and Parker

Day 6: The Final Day

On the final day, Manny showcased the progress that the MAPS team has made on the MMT adaptive secondary mirror used for exoplanet characterization.

I once thought that the Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT) still had multiple mirrors. It in fact has only one monolithic primary mirror.

Jay showed us windsoCC:

The latest pipeline devised by Jay is used for modelling ‘butterflies’ or wind-driven halos.

Matthijs LOWFS’d in a non-linear fashion:

And Sebastiaan gave one of the final talks of the conference on a fan-favorite: wavefront sensing and control:

With hearts full and passports smelling of dairy, we conclude the SPIE Copenhagen conference.

See you in two years for the next edition!

Song of the Day Week

MagAO-X 2026A Day 25: What Happened?

Well…something happened tonight. We showed up and the telescope opened. That may have been the most exciting part of the evening observing-wise.

The 2nd shift took over and watched the seeing monitor agonizingly creep upward with no end in sight.

This seeing monitor is reaching record levels.

A seeing chart of MagAO-X conditions…if the instrument were in Tucson.

In fact, the weather left Miles downright bean-boozled.

Miles’ headphones observed under poor seeing conditions.

The color of the day is “soft aluminum foil.”

Song of the Day

This song of the day accurately describes my (declining) mental state and the state of the instrument over the course of the night.

MagAO-X 2025B Day 16: Keepin’ It Unmodulated

Today marked the arrival of both Guanacos and our new team member Leah Albrow from MIT!

*Disclaimer: The Guanacos may have already arrived but I have yet to see one. For the time being, I must rely on third-party sightings of these mythical beings.*

Parker is attracting the attention of all of the animals on the mountain–just call him the Pied Piper of guanacos at this point.

Tonight also marked an important milestone in MagAO-X’s history. We conducted a whole night of observations with an unmodulated pyramid wavefront sensor using Rico’s new neural network!

The pyramid wavefront sensor exhibits a non-linear response, limiting its ability to accurately measure wavefronts. To mitigate this issue, AO groups will often modulate their pyramid wavefront sensors by spinning a little pyramid prism round and round (like a dreidel or a ballerina or me in my middle school computer lab with the little rolly chairs). But you can only spin a pyramid (or a Josh) so fast. The modulated pyramid is also limited in its sensitivity (the Josh, not so much). But with Rico’s non-linear reconstructor with a convolutional neural net (or NNRCNN for a fun acronym that rolls off the tongue), we don’t need to modulate our pyramid. We can run our AO loop fast and furiously, sensing wavefronts with the greatest of ease.

To celebrate, I have provided a list of things that are modulated and unmodulated.

Modulated:

My sleep schedule (some nights I go to bed early and wake up around noon, other nights, I dream about permanently residing in Florida and things don’t end well):

Florida is not for the weak. There are alligators and wide highways. — Florida.

Parker’s facial expressions:

The number of group members on our observing run:

While we witnessed the departures of Matthijs, Tiffany, and Laird over the last few days, we also gained new LCO first-timers being Rico, and most recently, Leah!

Yes, she has already chosen a walkup song. — Leah and co. enjoying the Dupont telescope.

Unmodulated:

Empanada volume on Sundays:

The wavefront sensor of the hour:

Unmodulated pyramid WFS (left) vs modulated pyramid WFS (right)

Blob-AOX — The modulated pyramid image kinda reminds me of this 1988 classic.

Our excitement in getting to spend another 5 days at the best telescope in the world!

Song of the Day:

Fun fact:

A squirrel’s front teeth never stop growing.

MagAO-X 2025B Day 7: Dawn of the Burro

Greetings again from MagAO-X-ville! Us astronomers are equal parts wildlife and planet photographers, although today involved a strong emphasis on the former. Enjoying the beautiful sun over the Atacama and the lack of 2-legged individuals, the burros seized their opportunity to reclaim the mountain (one might call it a burrocracy).

Many a burro photo was captured today by our professional shutterbugs (yes, this is actually a word) so I have included a brief compilation below:

Our professionals also identified an assortment of smaller creatures including (but not limited to):

Birds:

A frequent flyer looking rather suspicious.

Carloses:

Miles setting up the perfect shot of our fox friend.

Vizzies (vizzibility was high during both the day and the night):

And Hoomans:

A gathering of wildlife photographers (who also do some astronomy).

After a busy day at LCO, both the hoomans and the animals must go to bed, assuming they have not already done so.

Song of the Day:

Fun Fact:

I once got attacked by a goose after feeding it a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

AO Summer School Part III: The Return of the Higher Orders

We have reached the epic conclusion of yet another AO summer school. Stay with me, dear reader, as we have much to cover:

Day 4: The Penultimate Chapter

After 4 days in Santa Cruz, I was itching to see a patented yellow slime ball, affectionately known as the “Banana Slug.” In a sort-of slug summoning ceremony, I slipped on my slug stompers at sunrise.

#sluglyfe — The slug stompers (or slippers) in question.

The morning session began with a great controls theory talk given by Dr. Nour Skaf. Sadly, Nour did not stay at the workshop for very long, as she left to begin her new faculty position at UH IFA!!! 🙂 *catjam* *catjam intensifies*

We then heard from UCO director and GPI extraordinaire, Bruce Macintosh, about error budgets within AO systems.

The other thing that keeps me up at night is cheese — Bruce and I harbor a common fear of NCPAs.

After a long morning’s work AO-ing, it was time to take a brief nap:

This stone wall was more comfortable than our dorm mattresses. — This photo is sponsored by UVic’s New Earth Laboratory.

Following a quick nap, we worked on an AO simulation workshop led by UC Santa Cruz post doc and HCIPy conspirator, Emiel Por. There are no photos from this activity so I will leave the visuals to the reader’s imagination.

After dinner, Parker went on a hike while others studied for quals or worked on grant applications: