magellan telescopes

About Me!

Hi there! My name is Adina Feinstein. I *just* defended my Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. This fall, I will be a NASA Sagan NHFP Fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder.

I am an observer, which means I use ground-based telescopes, like the Magellan Telescopes in Chile (right) and Gemini-North in Hawai`i, and space-based telescopes, like the Hubble Space Telescope and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, for my work.

I received my bachelor's degree from Tufts University in Boston. My undergraduate thesis focused on identifying and characterizing lensed galaxies in the Hubble Frontier Fields images. I am originally from New York, which means no matter how long I've lived in Chicago, I'll never believe deep dish pizza is pizza.

Me at Magellan
I love crocheting

Outside of Work . . .

I love doing lots of miscellaneous things! For one, I love crafting. My main medium is string/yarn and I stick to mostly crocheting and needlework, although I've recently learned to knit too! Sometimes you'll even catch me crocheting during conferences because it helps me focus. Most of my projects are in the style of amigurumi, the Japanese art of crocheting/knitting small stuffed yarn creatures. But during the pandemic, I've attempted sweaters and bags too (like the one in the picture)!

I'm also an avid baker of everything except for sourdough (because I almost instantly killed my starter). I love baking muffins and cupcakes (they're different), and cinnamon buns. I am often inspired by recipes showcased on the Great British Bake-Off. During the pandemic, I've been able to practice two skills I've always wanted to be able to do: (1) cracking an egg with one hand and (2) making pie dough from scratch without a recipe.

Research Interests

Find an up-to-date copy of my 👉 CV here.

Stellar Flares

I use photometric and spectroscopic observations to find and characterize energetic short-duration outburst events, called flares, on other stars.

Young Planetary Systems

I am interested in spectroscopic follow-up of young planets to characterize the compositions of their atmospheres.

Open-Source Software Development

I love writing open-source software packages for the astronomical community. Check out some projects I've lead & contributed to here.

Ideas I'm Currently Thinking About

There's never enough time in the day to do everything. Here are some half-thought-out ideas of what I'd like to explore in the future!

Paper Summaries

I've started writing astrobite-esque summaries for my papers. Check some of them out here!

AU Microscopii in the FUV: Observations in Quiescence, During Flares, and Implications for AU Mic b and c.
Feinstein A. D., France K., Youngblood A., et al. Under Review at ApJ.

Testing Self-organized Criticality across the Main Sequence Using Stellar Flares from TESS.
Feinstein A. D., Seligman D. Z., Gunther M. N., Adams F. C., 2022, ApJL, 925, L9.

H-alpha and Ca II Infrared Triplet Variations During a Transit of the 23 Myr Planet V1298 Tau c.
Feinstein A. D., Montet B. T., Johnson M. C., et al. 2021, AJ, 162, 213.

Flare Statistics for Young Stars from a Convolutional Neural Network Analysis of TESS Data.
Feinstein A. D., Montet B. T., Ansdell M., et al., 2020, AJ, 160, 219.

Software Documentation

I'm the lead software developer for a handful of open-source Python packages. Check out their documentation pages here!

eleanor - A pipeline to extract light curves from the TESS Full-Frame Images.

stella - Convolutional neural networks for flare identification in TESS 2-minute light curves.

nirHiss - A custom pipeline for extracting stellar spectra from JWST NIRISS.

Poster Gallery

Here's a gallery of posters (and bonus stickers) I've created & presented since I started my PhD! (If the posters are overlapping, try adjusting the size of your browser window.)
cool stars 21

Cool Stars 21

Hubble observations of AU Mic
cool stars 20.5

Cool Stars 20.5

flares of young stars with TESS
sagan workshop 2021

Sagan Workshop 2021

spectroscopic follow-up of V1298 Tau c
eleanor poster 2019

AAS 233 -- eleanor

creating light curves from the TESS FFIs
K2-288Bb poster 2019

AAS 233 -- K2-288Bb

a planet discovered by citizen scientists
eureka collaboration sticker

Eureka!

collaboration sticker
eleanor pipeline sticker

eleanor

TESS FFI pipeline sticker

Contact

Want to get in touch? Feel free to email me! afeinstein [at] uchicago [dot] edu