Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

AstroMonnier

@astromonnier.bsky.social

73 followers 70 following 70 posts

John Monnier, Professor of Astronomy, U. of Michigan Favorite Things: Imaging Stars & Exoplanets with Interferometry Developer: MIRC-X, MYSTIC, STARI 2014 Michelson Investigator Prize; 2019 AAS Joseph Weber Award http://monnier.us Opinions my own.

monnier.us

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · 1d

Amazing work solving a tricky calibration problem with JWST aperture masking data! Any hope to improve ground-based systematics with this general approach?
@benjaminpope.bsky.social

arxiv.org/abs/2510.09806

AMIGO: a Data-Driven Calibration of the JWST Interferometer

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) hosts a non-redundant Aperture Masking Interferometer (AMI) in its Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) instrument, providing the only dedicate...

arxiv.org

1 2 2

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · 8d

Its much harder to help my kids with homework post-covid with no textbooks. Can’t help but wonder if the move to online resources is hurting learning across the board, but especially middle and high school.

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · 13d

Seems like you should try the method it on one of the classic CHARA datasets, either lambda and or zeta and. Is that in the works?

1 2

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Aug 29

Thanks @planet4589.bsky.social

One ride to terminator every few years.... Check it out, @jwcutler.bsky.social !

Two-panel meme. Top: hand-drawn sketch of Earth, Sun, and a red sun-synchronous orbit, with notes asking about allowed orbit angles. Caption: “How it started.” Bottom: polished 3D visualization of Earth with day/night shadow, orange SSO orbits, blue other orbits, and a red terminator line. Caption: “How it’s going.”

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Aug 27

This is brilliant. So a few are close to terminator but not many. Does your database contain the full dataset, including cubesats put in non polar orbits?

1 1

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Aug 27

🚀 Rideshare reality check: @planet4589.bsky.social — is there a good source for CubeSat drop-off orbits from the past 5 years? I’m modeling #STARI (a LEO formation-flying mission) and need to know the most common insertion orbits. Dream case is SSO terminator—but I’m told those are unicorns 🦄.

1 1

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Aug 13

Bravo to the organizers of the 2025 #smallsat Conference! Lively talks, great interactions, and flawless organization — plus free coffee, ice cream, lunches, and industry socials that set a high bar. Hope #AAS and #SPIE are taking notes! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Aug 11

Excited to attend my first SmallSat conference in Salt Lake City this week. Many cool CubeSat missions and innovative companies exhibiting. I’ll talk about our formation flying mission STARI later in week.
#smallsat
#stari

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Aug 10

Really hate to see Stanford going back on its pledge to halt legacy admissions.

stanforddaily.com/2025/08/06/s...

Stanford to continue legacy admissions, reinstate standardized test requirements

New admissions criteria announced a continuation of legacy consideration and a reinstatement of the standardized testing requirement for class of 2030 applicants

stanforddaily.com

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Aug 8

Bravo..

“ — making “Harvard astronomer” the scientific equivalent of “Florida man” didn’t just happen; it took long-term dedication.”

Steve Desch @deschscoveries.bsky.social · Aug 8

I have a complaint about Avi Loeb's latest work and I want to speak to management.

medium.com/@steve.desch...

This is not the quality of pseudoscience infotainment to which I have grown accustomed

Teasing the public with fraudulent or self-deluded promises of aliens used to mean something. It took work. It meant slapping together…

medium.com

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Aug 8

It is cool to see a movie about local Ann Arbor History funded by kickstarter!

Congratulations to the filmakers!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/196...

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Aug 2

Ahh yes. Indeed, Justin is working on that! I should check in on that. Also folks are working on HWO targets with CHARA.

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Aug 2

If characterizing nearby hot stars is important, We should talk about a chara survey to look for faint companions. We can do delta mag 8 within 0.15” for bright stars with modest effort. Open time through noirlab

1 2

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Jul 25

Not sure how american those dollars are…

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Jul 25

Toliman excepted?

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Jul 21

Just wow.

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Jul 15

For those also waiting, I just got a late NSF-ATI rejection today. The letter says only 10% success rate, notably lower than historical practice.

With MRI shutdown for next year, I suspect ATI (the only other NSF instrumentation programs) will be overwhelmed!

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Jul 15

Would be interesting compare images using this novel polarization method with those by interferometry

See these images of same star by #VLTI

www.eso.org/public/news/...

Best Ever Image of a Star’s Surface and Atmosphere - First map of motion of material on a star other than the Sun

Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer astronomers have constructed the most detailed image ever of a star — the red supergiant star Antares. They have also made the first map of the velociti...

www.eso.org

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Jul 15

Ok. So NSF has officially cut funding for one of its largest instrumentation programs for next year. Hope this is temporary.

www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

Changes to NSF Major Research Instrumentation Program for FY 2026

www.nsf.gov

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Jul 12

Spent time to visit Copernicus in old Krakow.

He worked at The Jagiellonian University in Krakow, the 4th oldest University in Europe, where they started out only teaching 3 disciplines: Law, Medicine, and Astronomy.

John in front of Copernicus statue in Krakow

1 5

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Jun 26

Heard of this ?

astro.theoj.org/post/3096-th...

The Cost of the Open Journal of Astrophysics | Published by The Open Journal of Astrophysics

Our annual running costs remain lower than the Article Processing Charge for a single paper at many journals

astro.theoj.org

1 3

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Jun 14

Thank you!

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Jun 10

I’d like to advertise the Michigan Society of Fellows, a unique opportunity for recent PhDs to carry out cutting edge research while also developing their teaching skills.

Any Interferometrists or ELT-METISians interested?

Note early deadline Sep 15.

societyoffellows.umich.edu/the-fellowsh...

The Fellowship – University of Michigan Society of Fellows, Established 1970

societyoffellows.umich.edu

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Jun 9

Website says 150euros/page. So probably better but not cheap.

AstroMonnier @astromonnier.bsky.social · Jun 9

150 euros per what?