MagAO-eXtreme Posts

Phil: Do you know what day it is?Rita: No, what?Phil: Today is tomorrow. It happened. — Groundhog Day (1993) This will be my 571st night at LCO (and this is my 270th blog post). I feel like one always gets into a rhythm on a long observing run. It might take a while — with MagAO-X ...

Dear Vizzy, We missed you! It’s been a whole MagAO-X observing run since we last saw you. We checked every day on our way up, but it seems like you were busy with other business. Señor cleanroom Vizzy. Last night, or morning? We had our last hurrah in the control room. Everyone in the control ...

Hi everyone! I’m Leah, a visiting observer from MIT. Tonight marks the last evening of observing for this run. After two successful previous nights of star-hopping for my targets (and some other observations), the operators began the day with a delicious breakfast (while I was fast asleep). Today we were joined by Manny, the Technical Director ...

Today it is my (Rico) turn to write the blog. It has been great fun joining the observing run this past week, and I am impressed with the team. It feels a bit like being in the cockpit of a starship: everyone instantly knows what the 100+ buttons do on the six monitors controlling the ...

“Eden, you have to stop making people blog”— anonymous Taking that note, we will no longer have any people blogging. Eden asked me to fill in. Today, I went out human-watching at sunset. While we were out there, Miles kindly took a portrait of me to use on my dating profile. I understand that these nerds have finally enstickened ...

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 ...

We’re all here to figure out puzzles like “Do rocky exoplanets have the same composition as Earth?”, “Do all protoplanets produce Halpha emission as they accrete?”, and “Can our AO system reach the contrast necessary to image low mass planets in reflected light?” It turns out, we also have a lot of puzzles to solve that ...

Today’s blog post is going to highlight my raison d’être for working with MagAO-X: its new polarimeter! Polarimetric differential imaging The MagAO-X polarimeter was initially installed in spring of 2025, consisting of a rotating half-wave plate (HWP) and polarizing beamsplitter cube (PBS). The combination of these two optics enables MagAO-X to measure the angle of linear polarization ...

Today people discovered I am just an average girl who loves astrology. No offense, but why having to choose between astronomy and astrology when – guess what – you can have both? Not only that, but I like to entertain myself in a variety of spiritual practices, for example, I am currently charging my tarot ...

As we enter the final month of the year, I would like to share my Astronomy: Wrapped with you all. You deployed six monitors with one viscacha background! It takes real vizzion to do something like that. This year you experienced five Empanada Sundays! (That means up to 20 empanadas, at maximum order size!) You hung out with Dr. Alycia ...