There have been very few things about this trip that resemble a “normal” MagAO-X run. For starters, there’s only two of us (no need to assemble the mega table on the patio!), and today was our first and only full day at the observatory. Thankfully, getting the system started up and in full working order went about as smoothly as we could have hoped for. So, in celebration of our instrument coming back online, here are some other snapshots from our atypical day:
What’s cooler than cool? Ice cold!
frozen condensationthe source of the condensation
September is winter down here, and that came with snow-capped peaks in the distance and a frozen windshield in the morning. Pro tip: a cup of hot water will thaw out that windshield for approximately 80% of the drive to the cleanroom, after which it will begin to freeze again. Oh, and if the heater in your dorm room happens to not work, well, you better hope you packed enough layers.
The filters on the wheel go round and round
we tested the metal tubes too but i have no photo evidence of that so you’ll just have to take my word for it O
The ND filter wheel in front of the science cameras stopped working a while back, even before the mountain got buried in snow. We had some theories why, but as soon as we opened it up and took a look, there was a pretty obvious break in the O-ring. We changed it out for a spare, and the whole problem was solved in less than 20 minutes, which never happens when you’re dealing with optomechanics.
Cosas Chilenas
feliz 18 telescopios magellanes!????
The lodge is currently decked out with tons of Chile-themed decor to celebrate the national holiday on the 18th! Plus, the water in the library kitchen had us posing philosophical questions such as: is Benedictino truly Benedictino if it is sin gaz? Why are all the other water jugs on the mountain a different brand? Why does the label not fit? Truly one of life’s great mysteries.
Grassy knolls
down by the DuPont telescopethe valley across the road from the bodega
I cannot express how absolutely bizarre it is that there is grass growing up here. Green grass! In the Atacama Desert! One would think that this would make LCO even more of a paradise for a guanaco or a burro or a humble viscacha, but they are nowhere to be found. In fact, other than the singular burro blocking the road on our way up and a handful of birds here and there, I haven’t seen a single animal on this whole trip. I guess when the valley is warmer and greener than the observatory, there’s no reason to make the trek. And I thought we were friends.
Constants
Despite all this weirdness, the snow and the lake and the traveling-twice-as-long-as-we-stay, some things never change. I still got sunburnt on my run even though I wore sunscreen. The food was still excellent, the roadside mirrors are still covered in bird poop, and the wi-fi still connects automatically. As always, the sun went down with a bit of dramatic flare. And tonight left us with one more surprise – the viscachas may be hiding, but even in the dead of winter the stars can’t help but peek out from behind the clouds.
7 weeks ago Chile was hit by a massive winter storm that dumped huge amounts of rain at lower elevations and snow higher up. This caused many disruptions to life here, with flooding, washed out roads, and many hardships.
The crew at LCO knew it was coming, so they went down to a skeleton crew who rode out the storm, but were stuck on the mountain for nearly 2 weeks until access could be restored. The mountain lost power, water, and internet. As part of managing this, MagAO-X was unplugged and left to hibernate while the rest of the observatory recovered.
Katie and I arrived today to begin plugging MagAO-X back in and bring it back to life. We’ll also take care of a few odds and ends while we’re here.
On the drive up it looked like we had arrived at the wrong place. Lush greenery and stunning wildflowers. The picture above doesn’t really do it justice. The picture below shows it a little better, but also captures the remains of one of the landslides that blocked the highway from La Serena to LCO.
By now the highway is mostly back to normal, though were several lane closures for crews still doing cleanup. The road from the highway to LCO is a different matter. Above you can see where it was totally washed out, and we had to take a freshly plowed dirt road through the wash downstream. No water there, but we saw many puddles, ponds, even a small lake, along the road.
Upon arriving, we discovered just how close we were to disaster. Water had clearly gotten into the cleanroom and run along the floor. However, it appears to have only touched one leg of the instrument and missed our electronics. Phew.
After arriving we did some glycol maintenance and got it flowing again, mopped the floor, and plugged everything back in and turned on the computers. So far so good. Tomorrow morning we’ll start moving things and close the loop.
We took a different route from the airport today, and saw this mural in La SerenaA nice surprise in the lodge! A selection of NA beer.It’s still winter here, so this is the closest we got to a sunset pic.
This is a short trip so we’ll keep the rules simple: song of the day is required as usual.
*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.
The annual pre-conference 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.
Stoat en route.
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.
Throughput maxxing
Stars that disaPIAA
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.
Oh whale
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
Fish eye lens Dr. Miles Lucas
Dr. Joseph Long proudly presents…
Me pointing at something
Adam in front of the accordion (his poster is the first one on the left)
Dr. Louis Desdoigts bridging the gap
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.
Jared’s talk viewed from two……different angles
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:
Fresh bread and cheese for all!
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!)
Joseph presenting Sebastiaan’s poster.
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.Maggie looking driven while presenting on a compact drive.Dr. Kelsey Miller presents the Lazuli coronagraph mode.Laird happily showing off the GMagAO-X optomech design.Dr. Yinzi Xin is in presentation mode, showing mode-sorting coronagraphy.Adam describing how each photonic lantern is unique like a snowflake (or a grad student)
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:
It is gains-o-clock.
Parker gave us good vibes with his talk on vibration control using accelerometers:
Here is a summary of the evening shenanigans:
The dynamic duo of Jay and Parker
Some MagAO-X folks up to no good
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:
Surprise, it’s the twin on-sky!
And Sebastiaan gave one of the final talks of the conference on a fan-favorite: wavefront sensing and control:
We were all tired by this point.
With hearts full and passports smelling of dairy, we conclude the SPIE Copenhagen conference.
There was sporadic talk of a pre-SPIE summit of Leiden and Arizonan and New Yorkian and Albuquerqueño MagAO-X users, but it seemed a distant dream until Asst. Prof. Sebastiaan Haffert said those four words we all long to hear:
Ultimately the visiting delegation was comprised of myself, Dr. Lauren Schatz (Space Force), Eden McEwen (UArizona), and Josh Liberman (UArizona). Lauren was there to give a talk. The rest of us were there to collaborate. (Josh was there for cheese research as well.)
After an inauspicious start in JFK Terminal 1 and a connection in still-heatwave-addled CPH airport, I made it to Amsterdam. From there, it was just a 25 minute train ride to Leiden. The convenience was sickening.
Reader, I live in New York City and I have noairport a 25 minute train ride away.
Dr. Schatz arrived shortly after and we had a nice juice (not pictured) with Dr. Haffert (not pictured until later). Then we had a nice dinner by a canal.
Then the jet lag hit.
I’m not sure if it’s age or simple weakness of will, but jet lag hit us both like a ton of bricks. For my part, I woke up at 3 A.M. with all the lights on in my hotel room and my laptop still open, having just time-warped a solid six hours from bedtime. Worse, this happened the next two nights as well.
The next day we met up with the Leiden crew, many of whom have bloggéd in the past (see posts by Adam Taras, Elena Tonucci, Dr. Matthijs Mars). The Gorlaeus building at Leiden University is so spacious and light-filled that Sebastiaan admitted he sometimes wears sunglasses inside. My current workplace is pretty nice, as office buildings go, but even we can’t claim to have a cat planter.
Sebastiaan gave us a tour of his lab spaces, including his remote MagAO-X MegaDesk and the adorably named BabyCAT coronagraph testbed and demonstration for public outreach.
We even got a tour of the lab that will integrate METIS for the ELT and saw the cryostat it’s going in. Truly, science is everywhere in Leiden.
We got dinner with Adam… and apparently failed to notice María Eugenia Redondo González (another previous blog contributor) at the next table. To be fair, she didn’t notice us either—but then, she probably wasn’t expecting us to pop up so far from Chile.
Leiden is disgustingly cute (as usual).
Josh’s cheese research bore fruit (or at least bore cheese).
Sebastiaan invited us over for a backyard party à la Jared. No grilled burgers, but there was a surprise guest: the No. 1 Cheese of 2026.
A lovely time was had by all, and I only asked Sebastiaan when he would be putting in a swimming pool once.
Drs Males and Morzinski (and a little squirrel) just had the amazing honor of being personally shown around the Grand Canyon by the Grand Canyon Conservancy’s Astronomer in Residence.
An absolutely packed theater at the Grand Canyon Visitor Center.
Said resident astronomer is none other than MagAO-X’s own Dr! Logan Pearce. After a pleasant road trip (via Nothern New Mexico) we arrived at the Grand Canyon visitor’s center just in time to catch one of her public talks:
It was really quite like the act everybody had been waiting for finally took the stage!
Logan covered a wide range of astronomy, and the audience’s rapt attention was broken only by their laughs at all the astronomy humor. (well, and a briefly fussy baby)
Of course PDS 70 made an appearance. +1.We toured the rim trail and visited several of Logan’s favorite spots.
One of the fun facts we learned from the AIR is that the #1 treated injury at the Grand Canyon is squirrel bites.
The other fun fact is that there are no dinosaur bones in the Grand Canyon because the rocks are too old!
Katie, Jared, (squirrel for scale), Todd, Alycia, Logan, and Justin
On our 2nd day we had another fun MagAO-X experience as MagAO-X superstar Dr. Alycia Weinberger and fam joined us. I think Logan even managed to keep it a secret until they were in line at the gate (when I texted Alycia to hurry up!) We had a great time catching up and had a wonderful sunset dinner outside of the Yavapai Tavern.
Logan residingLogan showing Justin the nearest star.
This is actually from a few days before, but the post-sunset planet show was really amazing for a few days there.
Part II: At LCO
It was implied but never stated: MagAO-X is off the telescope and set up in the clean room for remote ops. Thus endeth our first Nasmyth-West residency on the Clay telescope.
LCO and the Grand Canyon aren’t actually all that different in terms of scenery.
Not much to say other than “big success”. The jury is still out on whether it was actually better for our quality of life — no one cooks for you when you are just working late on campus, and other people expect you to be awake during the day.
Ready.
Song of the day:
The cover band at the Yavapai Tavern played this while we were there. It reminded me of the time I saw John Denver live — and he refused to play this song. Actually shouted “no” back at the crowd. I guess he was sick of it.
