Extreme Wavefront Control Lab – Home of MagAO and MagAO-X. [Uno…
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 32: UUUUU_
As Katie reports, we had a smooth and efficient MagAO-X removal — even though Sebastiaan and Parker collected the very last photons of the run. Everything went great, that is, until we turned the computers back on in the cleanroom. At this point we found that the data storage system on the Instrument Control Computer …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-32-uuuuu_/
6 days ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 31: All in a Day’s Work
I fell asleep trying to write this blog last night, if that tells you anything about how hard we’ve been working now that we’re back down here at LCO. That’s right — all good things must come to an end, and MagAO-X’s first experiment with remote operations has finally called it a wrap. Uninstall day …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-31-all-in-a-days-work/
7 days ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 30: Wind Troubles
The day started with Jared, Katie and I flying from Santiago to La Serena with another minor delay of about an hour. As we were driving up to the summit in the afternoon, the remote crew back in Tucson were in charge of aligning and prepping Alycia’s observations. Due to us three being in Chile …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-30-wind-troubles/
8 days ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 29: Dawn of the final day
Alright, here’s the scoop: I’m beginning to write this blog at the start of observations and I predict median conditions or slightly better. My qualifications for making these types of predictions is a 100% accuracy rate so far for this run and I intend to keep it that way! Though I admit I’ve only made …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-28-dawn-of-the-final-day/
10 days ago
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MagAo-X Day 27: Many photons make light work
In this blog, we celebrate observing in good conditions! The astronomical seeing at Las Campanas was ~0.5″ or better for the whole night! Using this time, I managed to get a very nice sequence of coronagraphic data on a circumstellar disk with the polarimeter. The crew celebrated such a good night of observing with a …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-day-27-many-photons-make-light-work/
15 days ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 26: Come along for a ride!
After a short break of three whole days, it’s time for another MagAO-X night. Within these 3 days, we have welcomed 2 special guests back to Tucson: our MagAO-X alumni Logan Pearce and Lauren Schatz. They have joined in on our weekly Friday group meetings and the happy hour pizza slice. While Logan is preparing …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-26-come-along-for-a-ride/
26 days ago
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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. In fact, the weather left Miles downright bean-boozled. …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-25-what-happened/
28 days ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 24: The Sonoran Dessert
Remote observing feels weird. Not because of what goes on in the ROC, but rather because of what goes on outside the ROC. When we observe at LCO, Tucson starts to feel a little bit like a dream. When you’re on top of Cerro Manqui, the idea of grocery shopping or vacuuming or pulling up …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-24-the-sonoran-dessert/
about 1 month ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 23: Characterizing Remote Observing
Welcome to Day 22! Tonight was another observing night for Alycia, while we were here in Tucson operating remotely. However, since she was great at both operating the system and logging, it wasn’t too eventful for the three of us on second shift. With this being the first run observing remotely, I’m sure it would …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-23-characterizing-remote-observing/
about 1 month ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 22: Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars
There is an eerie silence in the Clay control room. It’s a bit like a spooky Twilight Zone episode where everyone has disappeared, but their disembodied voices periodically ring out. Despite the remoteness of 2026A, it made sense for me to be here, as I will be spending the rest of the week at LCO …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-22-lookd-up-in-perfect-silence-at-the-stars/
about 1 month ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 21: The Return of Maggie-OX?
Ever since the MagAO-X team left the mountain, we have not had a sunset view nor the company of Maggie-OX in the control room. Well folks, that changes today. Our long time collaborator and primo disk observer, Alycia, has made her journey up the mountain tops today. She shared some familiar views of the sunset …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-21-the-return-of-maggie-ox/
about 1 month ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 20: Star Hopping and Special Guests
The observing night started with myself (and Josh to supervise me…) aligning the instrument rather early before observations began. Since I am less familiar with the startup and aligning process, this was a good time to get some practice in. Once aligned, we began the night with our collaborator from MIT joining us, Jensen Lawrence. …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-20-star-hopping-and-special-guests/
about 1 month ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 18: Standards of Operating
We had some quality control stop by the remote operating room this evening. Though I wasn’t in attendance for the early shift, I did hear we passed with flying colors. Or flying animal crackers, as it were. MagAO-X has been operating true to the golden rule “Having more things just means more things can go …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-18-standards-of-operating/
about 1 month ago
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MagAO-X Day 17: Always something fun when satellites are involved
Lauren Schatz, XWCL alum here! I flew in from Albuquerque, New Mexico to observe GEO satellites with MagAO-X to see if coronagraphy is possible with an extended source. It sounds simple enough right? “Put dot on top of satellite, done”, but turns out it is more complicated than that. The first thing you have to …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-day-17-always-something-fun-when-satellites-are-involved/
about 2 months ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 16: And Nothing Else Matters
Well here we go, on our way home. Wow this run felt long, even though we only had 7 nights. The first group of us got here 10 days early, though as is typical we mostly sat around waiting for a shipment to arrive. In truth we did an unreal amount of work. From overhauling …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-16-and-nothing-else-matters/
2 months ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 15: It’s the final countdown
This is my first blog post of the run even though I have already been here for nearly two weeks! It’s great to be back again at LCO. After being here for so many observing runs it is starting to feel like a second home. And it is almost time to go back because tonight …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-15-its-the-final-countdown/
2 months ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 15: Another day (or night) at MagAO-X
Algunos años han pasado desde mi última colaboración con este blog, aunque ya no son tan populares, este sí mantiene su vigencia con el aporte constante de sus integrantes. ¡ FELICITACIONES ! NIEVEEl años pasado tuvimos algunas jornadas con nieve, se cubre el paisaje de blanco, blanco invierno si buscamos en una ferretería el color …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-15-another-day-or-night-at-magao-x/
2 months ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 14: Back Online
The day began with the LCO engineers troubleshooting an issue we were having with the telescope last night. After spending many hours during the night and 10 hours during the day, they were able to determine there was an open loop somewhere in the motor through electrical measurements. They found the part that was causing …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-14-back-online/
2 months ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 13: Paired Up
I really hope we never have to align these cubes again! Laird Close, MagAO-X 2026A Day 7 Today Laird and I aligned the beamsplitter cubes again. This time we discovered a faulty clamp, which is a better explanation for our constantly having to re-align than “perhaps someone is hexing us.” We’re confident that the problem …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-13/
2 months ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 12: snacks, asteroids and a childhood friend
Onto our 2nd night of observing! Despite the burros best efforts to block us in, we managed to get up the mountain again for an action packed night. Observing snacks Everyone knows that you cannot observe off caffeine alone. We all bring a wide range of weird but yummy snacks to keep us going during …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-11/
2 months ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 11: Bizarro world
Welcome to the day of flips, we’re back on the telescope and everything feels just a little off. Flip the platform, NASE to NASW. Flip the schedule, day to night. Flip the detectors, visible to IR. We were not victorious for all fights involving negative signs, but our 24 hour day was full of flipping …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-11-bizarro-world/
2 months ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 10: Work Hard, Play Hard
Today’s the day. And it’s going to happen again and again. But for this time, the first order of business is to pick up where we left off at the end of the day yesterday and move MagAO-X, safely, from the cleanroom -> up the summit -> onto the Nasmyth platform. Moving from the clean …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-10-work-hard-play-hard/
2 months ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 9: Clean Up Day
Today was full of action! To prepare for install tomorrow, we had a whole lot going on. Laird and Katie had some alignment work, me and Eden were finding new focus positions for the camsci stages, Rob and Viktoria worked on camdurham, and of course there were still grad students in the library working on their …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-9-clean-up-day/
2 months ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 8: Vignetting
They say every day is a school day and despite it being a Sunday in sunny Las Campanas I would definitely say it’s been another good day for learning! Lesson 1, Size matters: My first lesson of the day was that a 32 oz cup (946 mL to those metrically minded) exists and is considered …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-8-vignetting/
2 months ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 7: Cubism
You know it’s optical alignment day when you open your camera roll to write a blog post and it just looks like this: It’s been an all-hands-on-deck kind of day. Our activities have ranged from the very low-tech (cardboard tubes) to the very high-tech (new infrared camera in the visitor port) to the sort-of-medium-tech (refractometer …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-7-cubism/
3 months ago
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MagAO-X Day 6: Big Red and Big Upgrades
Today started with Tiffany putting in some plumbing work for MagAO-X. We added a new glycol port to go into the side instrument panel to cool the new IR camera being installed within the next week. In order to make space for the new IR camera, Sebastiaan and our collaborators from Durham University, Rob and …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-day-6-big-red-and-big-upgrades/
3 months ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 5: All about the vibes
[TYPING] “combustion… point… cardboard…” The 26A run is well and truly moving along now. We had our first sunburn, a visit to a fellow Clay instrument (Lightspeed) and some more of the team (Katie, Parker and Tiffany) joining today. On our first and second day of work, Sebastiaan and I targeted the vibes of the …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-5-all-about-the-vibes/
3 months ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 4: Pending
Hello to day 4 — or, as a true Austrian would say: Griaß eich!As always, it is a beautiful sunny day here at the telescope, but maybe even sunnier today since it’s my birthday. It would have been a great present if our instrument had finally shown up, as we had some problems with customs …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-4-pending/
3 months ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 3: Deadlock Funlock
Multi-threaded software is hard. You get all these different processes trying to access the same place in memory, and if they do it at the same time weird things happen. We have ways to stop these “data races” with tools like “atomics” and “mutexes” (mutices? plural of mutex for mutual exclusion) — but these add …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-3-deadlock-funlock/
3 months ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 2
Welcome to the second work day of the 26A run! Today we’ll be taking a brief look at some of the polarization work I’ve been doing (because, you know, if I didn’t mention polarimetry, did I even write a blog post?) Today I spent time managing cables for the polarimeter and for the new polarization …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-2/
3 months ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 1: It’s official.
Today, we’re officially officials of the official pre-observing engineering duties for MagAO-X officials. We officially go on-sky on March 25 so we’ve got a jam-packed list of things to knock out before then. Since we arrived on the mountain without delays yesterday, we elected to dedicate the rest of the day/night Saturday for healing after …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-1-its-official/
3 months ago
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MagAO-X 2026A Day 0: On a plane already?
Flying out on Friday the 13th comes with some ominous portents. Thankfully, we only seemed to be hexed with suboptimal seat assignments and the briefest of turbulence. As of writing the early crew has made it safely to LCO, tucked in and ready to start fresh tomorrow morning. For all those traveling later, know that …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2026a-day-0-on-a-plane-already/
3 months ago
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MagAO-X at Spirit of Lyot 6: The Haunting of Baxter Hall
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA – Every few years, an eclectic group of scientists and engineers gathers in a scenic location to discuss the minutiae that come with taking pictures of really dim things next to really bright things. The Spirit of Lyot conference is named for one Bernard Lyot, a French astronomer known for inventing an instrument …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-at-spirit-of-lyot-6-the-haunting-of-baxter-hall/
4 months ago
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MagAO-X 2025B Day 21: Today is Tomorrow
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 …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2025b-day-21-today-is-tomorrow/
6 months ago
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MagAO-X 2025B Day 20: Head in the clouds
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. Last night, or morning? We had our last hurrah in the control room. Our take down crew went to bed …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2025b-day-20-head-in-the-clouds/
6 months ago
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MagAO-X 2025B Day 19: Hip Hop Hooray for a Successful Run
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 …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2025b-day-19-hip-hop-hooray-for-a-successful-run/
6 months ago
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MagAO-X 2025B Day 18: The Burro Strikes Back
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 …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2025b-day-18-the-burro-strikes-back/
6 months ago
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MagAO-X 2025B Day 17: Little Vizzy in a Big World
“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 …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2025b-day-17-little-vizzy-in-a-big-world/
6 months ago
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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.* Tonight also marked an important milestone in MagAO-X’s history. We conducted …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2025b-day-16-keepin-it-unmodulated/
6 months ago
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MagAO-X 2025B Day 15: An AO Puzzle
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 …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2025b-day-15-an-ao-puzzle/
6 months ago
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MagAO-X 2025B Day 14: What you can’t see can’t hurt you
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 …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2025b-day-14-what-you-cant-see-cant-hurt-you/
6 months ago
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MagAO-X 2025B Day 13: Pesca la tua carta e vai!
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 …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2025b-day-13-pesca-la-tua-carta-e-vai/
6 months ago
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MagAO-X 2025B Day 12: Your Astronomy: Wrapped
As we enter the final month of the year, I would like to share my Astronomy: Wrapped with you all. And we still have seven nights to go. Today marked the departure of Laird* and arrival of Alycia. Alycia is our local debris disk enthusiast, so it was good for her to meet Miles Lucas …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2025b-day-12-your-astronomy-wrapped/
6 months ago
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MagAO-X 2025B Day 11: Abstraction
We’ve really settled into a rhythm here on the mountain top. While our individual wake-up times vary, we all mosey on down to the lodge for dinner at around 6:30. After an unfailingly excellent meal (and perhaps a cup of tea), the first shift of AO operators make their way up to the summit and …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2025b-day-11-abstraction/
6 months ago
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MagAO-X 2025B Day 10: Too Close for Comfort
Tonight started with Katie, Tiffany, and Josh as our dedicated graduate student MagAO-X operators. They were tasked with assisting Logan with her observing program in the first half of the night. While the conditions started out rough, they stabilized after an hour or two on sky. When 1:30AM approached, it was time to switch to …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2025b-day-10-too-close-for-comfort/
6 months ago
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MagAO-X 2025B Day 9: The swing of things
If there ever was a day to wake up for lunch, Sunday is that day. While we all placed our much anticipated empanada night lunch orders, nothing beats the pastry goodies paired with the lunchtime soup choices. Though delicious, the prize lunch came at the cost of some significant sleep debt for members of our …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2025b-day-9-the-swing-of-things/
6 months ago
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MagAO-X 2025B Day 8: It’s time for some face masks
You wouldn’t guess it but it was already our third night at the telescope. Which means it was also my third day (night) here at Las Campanas Observatory. I arrived as an extremely fresh (and hopeful) astronomer on our first observing day. It was quite though to go through an almost 30hr journey to immediately …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2025b-day-8-its-time-for-some-face-masks/
6 months ago
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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 …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2025b-day-7-dawn-of-the-burro/
6 months ago
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MagAO-X 2025B Day 6: A Thanksgiving Miracle
Hi, Happy Thanksgiving and welcome to my first blog post and first time in Chile! Not long after a long travel, we woke up and were immediately put to work. There were a lot of things to be done on Thanksgiving, and gifts to be unwrapped. Of course before opening the the gift, we had …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2025b-day-6-a-thanksgiving-miracle/
6 months ago
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MagAO-X 2025B Day 5: the gift that keeps on giving
And now it falls to me to write today’s blog post. The plan for the day was simple enough: adjust the focus on the science cameras and then pack up the instrument for its move to the aux building. However, while one of our fresh postdocs succumbed to the infamous Haffert disease and stayed up …
https://xwcl.science/magao-x/magao-x-2025b-day-5-the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving/
6 months ago
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