Category: Conferences

*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.

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.

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

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.

We end the day with a beautiful sunset…

Day 2

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

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)

Daily Poster Roundup

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.

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:

Poster Roundup

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.

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:

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.

Jay showed us windsoCC:

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

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 no airport 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.

Song of the Day