Wim De Meester

ABSTRACT

In preparation of their eclipse trip to Mexico in April 2024, Wim and Sara realised that the eclipse software they had been using before to automatically take pictures during a solar eclipse was incompatible with the hardware they  had.  Searching for an alternative sotware package was unsuccessful, so around Christmas 2023 they decided to write their own software package.  Enter the Solar Eclipse Workbench!  They spent many long evenings discussing and programming, sitting next to each other on the couch, but in the end they managed to get the job done in time.  The sofware worked like a charm and they returned from Mexico with a whole bunch of (eclipse) pictures.

In this talk, Wim and Sara will present their Solar Eclipse Workbench, demonstrating the features they have already implemented and touching upon their plans for the future.

BIO

Wim De Meester studied Engineering in Ghent.  He is now working as a Senior Software Engineer in astronomical instrumentation at the Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven.  He has been involved in various research projects, such as Herschel, the MIRI instrument of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Mercator telescope, and the upcoming METIS instrument for ESO's Extremely Large Telescope (ELT).  He has observed six total solar eclipses (the one in 2009 was in the rain) and one annular eclipse

Together wit Sara, Wim has travelled the world, enjoying nature to the fullest and witnessing a few eclipses along the way.  Their 11-year-old daughter Lotte accompanies them on all their trips (eclipses and otherwise) and seems to be their lucky charm, helping them to increase their success rate in seeing total solar eclipses (her success rate is 100%).