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.
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*
All suffering stems from the mind.
We then heard from UCO director and GPI extraordinaire, Bruce Macintosh, about error budgets within AO systems.
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 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:
Parker lichen what he’s seeing.UA+Uvic+Gemini crossover episode!
After an unsuccessful attempt to observe some stars, we gathered outside the dorms to sit on tree stumps:
No injuries occurred during the scaling of this tree stump.
We were kind enough to include this green table in our group selfie:
Selfie with a green table
Day 5: No Fish in the Microwave
The fifth and final day of the AO summer school began with an important reminder:
The banana slugs enforce a strict no fish in microwave policy.
The final day also included talks on astrophotonics, AO in space, and AO for microscopy!
As this blog post is biased towards my areas of research interests, I included a photo from Rus Belikov’s talk of EFC being done before it was cool:
Call this OG(FC).
Finally, it was time for the moment that we have all been waiting for–the AO Summer School Vision Awards 2025!
I won the award for Worst Optics (I thought about contesting but I was bribed with banana slug stickers)! And Parker won the adaptive pupil award!
Everyone wants to know what would I do if I didn’t win…Parker with the shape-shifting pupils
We then went on a social excursion to the Santa Cruz boardwalk/arcade/karaoke facility/casino/bowling alley/laser tag room!
Parker thinking about going for a swimEmmanuel and Parker locked in an epic air hockey duel.Parker and I enjoying a roller coaster.
Here’s to a successful AO summer school!
Our wild turkey participants forgot to join us for the group photo.
Just before leaving, we finally got some slug-tent:
Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, banana slug.
I would like to dedicate this blog post to Keck’s broken dome shutter.
Welcome to SPIE 2025: The Optics and Photonics version (not to be confused with the astronomical instrumentation version which happens every other year)!
We welcome you back to sunny San Diego, where I spent my first day in the airport because I initially thought that the conference began on a Monday. Instead, I was running circles around the San Diego airport (quite literally because the San Diego airport is a circle).
Following this adventure, I delivered a very special package to one Sebastiaan Haffert containing multiple MagAO-X masks.
An artistic rendering of the MagAO-X mask exchange.
And thus dear reader, this brings us to Day 1 (2) of the conference.
SPIE Day 1 2: Makes Sense
Today’s talks were of a sensitive nature…the wavefront sensing variety, that is. Kevin Derby of the famed University of Arizona Space Astrophysics Lab gave a talk on full-field phase retrieval (say that 3 times fast) for a space telescope.
🙂 😮 :/
Rico then made waves (or reconstructed wavefronts) with the one and only MagAO-X talk of SPIE 2025.
Perfectly reconstructed as all wavefronts should be.We will all one day be replaced by neural nets.
I did my best to spread the gospel of the spatially-clipped self coherent camera:
I am not giving away my (single) shot.
In the evening poster session, Rodrigo did a masterful job presenting MagAO-X’s latest and greatest addition:
The dawn of the polarimeter poster.
After all of this presenting, it was time for a noteworthy celebration which involved dancing inflatable sharks, a blow-up igloo, penguin cupcakes, and steel pan covers of classic pop songs. Before you ask, this was not Katy Perry’s 2015 Super Bowl Halftime Show.
It was the iconic SPIE Welcome Reception!
Rico chomping down on a plastic penguin. The flightless bird toys adorning the cupcakes were not in fact edible.
SPIE Day 2 3: Cats + Dogs + Pi
We may not be in Antofagasta but this conference has gone to the dogs (or rather, the cats). The second not Sunday of SPIE featured a talk on the MEOW survey of directly imaged white dwarfs. Naturally, if the survey is named after an animal and concerns white dwarfs, Logan is involved.
This survey is the cat’s meow.
Elisabeth Arcadi from Macquarie University then gave us a lesson on photonic nulling interferometry using tasty baked goods:
A pie phase shift…
SPIE Day 3 4: ExAO at the Plenary + PDS 70 + Aliens + Telescopes in Space + Dune:
The third not Sunday began with Arizona astronomy being featured front and center in the plenary session courtesy of Buell:
PDS 70 made the big time!
Buell then showcased everyone’s favorite instrument:
GMagAO, GMTAO-X, GMagAO-X, MagAO, VisAO, MagAO-X (formerly known as MagAO), Not SceXAO, That Box With a lot of Stickers, MagAO-X!
Buell gave the audience an overview of all the cool work being done at Steward both on the ground and in space!
SPACE.
We then heard from Dr. Sug-Whan Kim who gave us a fascinating overview of Korea’s history in astronomical optics. Dr. Kim ended his plenary in the way that every talk should end: with a Dune reference.
There is no call we do not answer…
Ramya then gave a great talk on PUFFINS (not the critically acclaimed cereal but the future UV polarimetry mission)!
Birds + polarimetry = highly succesful space mission
SPIE Day 4 5: Dark Hole Day
The fourth not Sunday was International Dark Hole Day (I declared it so), featuring some pretty far out dark holes from Rus Belikov:
I spent a good portion of this day on the beach.
The beach in question:
SPIE-themed cornhole, anyone?
SPIE Day 5 6: Need a vortex coronagraph?
On the fifth not-Sunday of SPIE, the conference gave to me…multiple vortex coronagraph talks! Unrelated, but I also bought 2 shirts this morning because I started running low.
Tonight was another Laird night which means more of our favorite target, PDS 70!
Could PDS 70 have alien life? Will we find a new planet? Are the answers to these questions always ‘no’?
Who’s to say.
We will get back to the PDS 70 excitement shortly, but first, a recap of the day’s festivities:
Team Leiden is ready for battle.
Sebastiaan and Elena got the FAST-SCC (self-coherent camera) working in lab! In the FAST-SCC, a coronagraph yeets light through a pinhole in the Lyot stop. This spatially filtered light interferes with residual stellar speckles, creating a fringe pattern in the focal plane from which the wavefront can be recovered. With our wavefront measurement, we can diggy diggy a dark hole.
I am a dwarf and I’m digging a hole…
Meanwhile, Katie and I hiked out to the solar telescope, and we also saw a burro.
This burro may be expecting a burrito!
The solar telescope has truly cemented its legacy (get it, cuz the enclosure is made of cement).
Following a brief interlude, we have returned to the scene of PDS 70. While Logan may have left us, the good seeing that typically follows her decided to stick around.
“How could this be?” You ask.
Enter…Stewart.
A portrait of Stewart E. Stewartson (colorized, date unknown).
With Stewart’s steady hand, we got some of the best seeing of our entire run!
Nooice.Stewart operates the AO system as Sebastiaan and Matthijs look on.
Our night also featured a beautiful moon.
Good night moon.
Good day, moon.
Having reached the epic conclusion of this blog post, I am ready to go to bed. “The midnight hour is passed and my attendants have all retired.” I recently watched the 2024 remake of Nosferatu, and it was difficult to find an appropriate quote for this blog post.
…to defeat…chronic back pain. Or something like that. Yesterday, the MagAO-X team partook in rigging and crane safety training (or craining for short).
“Why do we need a blog post about rigging? I just don’t get it!” ~ Anonymous MagAO-X Team Member
Fair point, anonymous group member. However, plenty of excitement occurs during crainings.
I have included a list of famous crane operators below:
Katie Kelleher (top 100 women in construction and owner of katiecranes.com)
Tom Gordon (former crane operator at 1 World Trade Center)
Jared Males
Our craining day began with Maggie modeling the iconic Sketcher’s work boot.
What are thooose?They are Maggie’s Skechers’s!
We then embarked on a drive up to Mt. Hopkins where a few of us had an in-depth discussion on life, interpersonal relationships, and the critically acclaimed film Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising.
I forgot to take a picture depicting the conversations in question, so here’s an image of the observatory sign that I took.
I saw the sign. And it opened up my eyes, and I am happy now.
Our craining got off to an exhilarating start. Below, Katie and Eden can be seen reacting to a sling failure compilation.
Wire we watching this? Because safety is no accident.
Our craining also featured a GMT cameo and a thorough sling inspection.
Wire sling cores or ELT pupils? You decide!How to Train Your Astronomer.
Following our craining, we got an MMT(our) of the facilities!
Kids’ first MMT (except for Parker)!Mirror mirror in the cradle, how do we inspect a rigging cable?Eyeing the mirror from the telescope platform.
Finally, we engaged in some hands-on rigging training…
That’s an instrument mini fridge.Dan is preparing to lift the instrument by hand–a noble endeavor.
…and inspected the adaptive secondary mirror.
The ASM is looking mighty fine!
Thus concludes the first ever MagAO-X craining session!
See what I did there? Heh, heh, heh. I hereby present to you a recap of the 2024 NYRIA workshop at UC San Diego–Josh style.
Day 0: Arrival
I arrived in San Diego with multiple hours to kill before my hotel check-in time. After acquiring recommendations from family members, I made my way over to the “Gaslight Quarter” (as it turns out, this is actually the Gaslamp District). I then walked into Petco Park–home of the San Diego Padres baseball team.
Despite its name, Petco Park contained no pets.
I was a bit surprised that the stadium gates were left open to the public, but I suppose the Padres team is used to letting people walk all over them.
After reaching the hotel, my roommate Gustavo and I ran to a nearby Starbucks for some last minute presentation edits/homework assignment submissions.
This late night work session was sponsored by Starbucks.
Day 1: Intros + Tours + Beach Day
On my walk to the workshop, I briefly considered dropping everything to join Saturnia, Emperor of Moths, in their rock band but I thought better of it.
A band of moths.
Maybe next time.
In the opening session, we were treated to a great presentation from Professor Quinn Konopacky on the history of UCSD. Quinn also provided us with a brief update on the status of the Gemini Planet Imager.
Unfortunately, the GPI wavefront sensor is in Indiana at the moment.
We then introduced ourselves via some stylish slides.
Jonas wins for best use of photoshop while Weerapot wins for best use of the International Space Station as a green screen.
Jonas rides an ELT-themed bicycle.
Weerapot joins us from the ISS.
We next went on lab tours, seeing many a detector and dilution fridge.
Detecting a detector with my detector (say this 3 times fast).
This fridge cools things down to millikelvin temperatures.
An old planetarium. Perhaps we can get one for the office?
Following the lab tours, it was time to kayak. Along the way, Olivier’s RTC software made an appearance.
Putting the AO in San Diego.
I have no pictures from kayaking but perhaps that is for the best. Aditya and I managed to crash into every kayak on the high seas at least once. However, we did see some seals, sea lions, and orange fish (garibaldi) so the excursion was very much worth it.
We concluded the day with pizza and smores on the beach (photos courtesy of Weerapot). Unfortunately, no green flash was spotted this time around.
Beaches are best enjoyed with pizzas, smores, and sunsets.
Day 2: Time to Get Down to Business
Day 2 began with a series of talks on instrumentation.
Christian giving a talk on EPRV.
During the lunchbreak, Professor Adam Burgasser led a DEI workshop on adopting a growth mindset. One of the prompts was ‘Your instrument was awarded $30 million…’
Here at MagAO-X, we are always employing a growth mindset.
The afternoon session featured more exciting talks. My roommate, Dr. Gustavo Ramos, fresh off of a PhD thesis defense, gave a great talk on his star recognition algorithm.
I recognize at least one star in this image.
Some additional highlights from the talk session:
I promoted Laird’s postdoc position……and preached the good word of iEFC.Jayke told us about post-processing of Keck NIRC2 coronagraph images.Dr. Briley Lewis told us about direct imaging of solar system objects.
Upon returning to my hotel, I was greeted by an ominous warning on the microwave.
This signage could have prevented many fire alarms in undergraduate dorms.
Day 3: Talks + Tacos
The morning session was filled with additional instrumentation presentations. Here are a few more highlights:
Chanisa developed a spectrograph for atmospheric + astronomical applications in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Peyton is characterizing detectors for the Keck SCALES instrument.
Mariam works on an RV spectrograph located in the Canary Islands.
Haffert et al. (2019) count: 2
A fan favorite amongst professors whose names start with “Laird” and end with “Close.”
We were treated to a great career panel during our lunch break, featuring Professor Steph Sallum (she’s a Steward alum!) from UC Irvine, Professor Shelley Wright from UCSD, and Dr. Marie Ygouf from NASA JPL.
We then gathered outside for a group photo followed by tacos.
The sun was in my eyes, so I could not see anything.
Clarissa takes a selfie for the late arrivals table.
The gang’s all here.
Day 4: Field Trip
Thursday featured a field trip to the Palomar Observatory, sponsored by Oreos and Jersey Mike’s.
I’m growing tired of typing, so here are the sparknotes:
The Palomar telescope dome (this telescope is an old soul).The Palomar AO system.The telescope itself was too large to fit into my camera FOV.The PARVI instrument housed within a very professional Styrofoam enclosure.Photographic plate images from Palomar (photo courtesy of Weerapot).Ben telling us about his solar tracker for PARVI.An ABSOLUTE UNIT of a pine cone.
Day 5: More Talks, More Tacos + Closing + Green Things
Day 5 is dedicated to the color green. Thus, I present some green things:
1.) Philz Coffee
The mint leaves from my Philz Iced Mint Mojito.
2.) Our hackathon final project presentations (the prompt was to build a green telescope).
Edoardo presents the S.A.L.A.D. telescope. What is greener than salad? Nothing.Tania presents Ice-T.Our fantastic logo (courtesy of Dr. Mark Cunningham).
3.) Dr. Saavi Perera’s closing remarks (not green, but we’ll let it slide)
4.) The green scarecrow hats from Tacos El Gordo
A final acknowledgement goes to Danny for his great stand-up comedy throughout the workshop (not pictured because I was too busy laughing of course).
The 2024 NYRIA workshop was a great success. Perhaps we can hold a future workshop in Tucson?
