William Thompson
Herzberg Instrument Science Fellow at the National Research Council in Victoria, Canada. Imaging exoplanets and writing #JuliaLang tools.
- SPIDERS is installed on the Subaru Naysmith platform and we got first fringes on from the upstream AO system. Next step, a real star! Huge thanks to Subaru, NAOJ, and the SCExAO teams for accommodating us. #exoplanets #instrumentation
- SPIDERS is out of the clean room and almost ready to ship — it’s really happening! #instrumentation #exoplanets
- SPIDERS is out of the clean room and almost ready to ship — it’s really happening! #instrumentation #exoplanets
- Paper accepted to AJ! 🥳 Updated preprint coming to an arxiv server near you.
- First day as a Plaskett Fellow 😎
- Last day as a Herzberg fellow 🥲
- To make it work, I had to pass “--overcommit” Story of my life…
- #exoplanets As we speak, Octofitter is running on nearly 20,000 cores 😅 maybe a record for most exoplanet orbit fits run in parallel?
- #exoplanets As we speak, Octofitter is running on nearly 20,000 cores 😅 maybe a record for most exoplanet orbit fits run in parallel?
- Octofitter v7, now released! This release overhauls the modelling syntax and add some powerful new capabilities for advanced users. [1/4] (Octofitter is a package for Bayesian modelling of exoplanet orbits)
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- Direct imagers, what is your expectation for how speckles behave at high spectral resolution? Do they vary smoothly with wavelength? We have an R11,000 cube at 10^-7 contrast to share soon, but I’m curious to hear people’s expectations first #instrumentation #exoplanets.
- Position of Epsilon Eridani b in-front/behind the star, and phase angle over time for those interested. Updated pre-print should be ready soon! 🔭 #exoplanets
- There’s something very special about the gulf islands 🏝️
- Our JWST DDT was accepted 🥳
- Reposted by William ThompsonFound some beautiful Neptune data digging through the Keck Observatory Archives! The pole isn't nearly as visible now as it was back in 2002.
- I was honoured today to give the Plaskett medal award talk to open this years Canadian Astronomical Society meeting in Halifax! Great to share our work on #exoplanets imaging and modelling 🔭
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- Octofitter v6 just released! 🐙 * Overhauled Hipparcos / Gaia modelling * Multi-planet epicycle approximation * Include astrometric jitter, north angle, and plate-scale uncertainties * Dynamical priors (prevent crossing) * Celerite gaussian processes Much more! (fig. credit in reply) #exoplanets 🔭
- Link: sefffal.github.io/Octofitter.j... Change log: github.com/sefffal/Octo... Fig. credits: * arxiv.org/abs/2504.11127 * arxiv.org/abs/2502.05359 * arxiv.org/abs/2502.20561 Thanks to: * Dori Blakley * Eric Nielsen * William Roberson * Zach Langford * Eric Agol * Sarah Blunt * Clarissa R Do Ó
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- Reposted by William Thompson[Not loaded yet]
- Recent images from our SPIDERS pathfinder instrument demonstrating the self-coherent camera--next generation tech for direct imaging of exoplanets! We use a special coronagraph to interfere the starlight with itself, like a classic double slit experiment... [1/3] 🔭 #Instrumentation #exoplanets
- Thank you @fherwig.bsky.social!
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- I learned today that am being awarded the J.S. Plaskett medal for most outstanding doctoral thesis in astronomy in Canada. Thank you @casca.ca.web.brid.gy, and my committee for the nomination! 🔭
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- This is fantastic news. Upping grad and postdoc awards (both stipend and amount), and finally allowing non-Canadian/PRs to apply.
- 🚨 HUGE news from Canada's tricouncils who are harmonizing their scholarship & fellowship programs, upping the total number (huzzah!), and critically, allowing foreigners to apply for doctoral and postdoc fellowships. Want to work with me? Get in touch! 🇨🇦🧪⚒️ www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/NewsDetail-D...
