Announcement: Vera C. Rubin Observatory

7 May 2021: We are pleased to announce that the Satellite Constellations 2 (SATCON2) workshop will be held virtually 12–16 July 2021 to discuss how to implement the mitigation strategies (determined in SATCON1) to minimize the impact of satellite constellations on astronomy. SATCON2, the successor workshop to last year's SATCON1, has three objectives: Define and quantify resources, metrics, and collaborations needed to implement the SATCON1 recommendations, many of which will require substantial effort and funds to address. Engage astronomers and satellite operators collaboratively in exploring policy frameworks and developing policy points for operations in low Earth orbit (LEO). Increase the diversity of stakeholders and perspectives working to address both the challenges and the opportunities for astronomers, satellite operators, and all of humanity created by the industrialization of space. From May through early July 2021, four working groups will explore topics relevant to these goals. The Observations Group (chaired by Meredith Rawls, University of …

29 April 2021: NSF’s NOIRLab will share free astronomy-themed activities during AstroDay, an annual event on Hawai‘i Island, which has been extended for a full weekend this year. From Friday 30 April through Sunday 2 May 2021, anyone in the Hilo area of Hawai‘i can pick up take-home science kits at Prince Kūhiō Plaza, while others can find online activities to enjoy wherever they live. First held in 2002, AstroDay offers a unique opportunity to learn about the science that takes place on Maunakea and throughout the state of Hawai‘i. Prior to 2020, AstroDay was a single-day event held at the Prince Kūhiō Plaza mall in Hilo, involving in-person hands-on science activities and performances presented by dozens of organizations from around the state. In 2021, AstroDay participants can visit the Prince Kūhiō Plaza any time during regular business hours from 30 April through 2 May to pick up free materials and activity kits …

27 April 2021: PROJECT & SCIENCE NEWS Save the date, August 9-13, for the 2021 Rubin Project and Community Workshop (PCW), which will be virtual again this year. We look forward to engaging with our colleagues during the event, and we will provide more details as they become available. The Data Management team held its third and final of the first set of photo-z virtual forums on April 8th, as part of its ongoing effort to seek input from the science community regarding which photo-z estimator(s) should be adopted to generate photometric redshifts (photo-z) for the LSST Data Release Object catalog. This first set of forums focused on defining evaluation criteria for photo-z estimators with the community. The next set of forums will begin on Tuesday May 11 at 12pm Pacific, and will focus on working with the community to prepare letters of recommendation for photo-z estimators to use in DRP. The call …

13 April 2021: PROJECT & SCIENCE NEWS Rubin Construction Project leadership has announced an update to the project schedule: Based on currently available information, it’s expected that regular survey operations for Rubin Observatory will not begin before October 2023. We acknowledge that this announcement is disappointing, and we appreciate the patience and flexibility of our community and supporters as we continue to clarify the impact of COVID-19 on our construction effort. Additional details will be provided as they are available. The Survey Cadence Optimization Committee (SCOC) would like to issue a reminder of the upcoming April 15th deadline for Cadence Note submission. More information is available on lsst.community.org. A new video, a compilation of on-sky images taken by the Rubin Observatory Auxiliary Telescope (AuxTel) spectrograph during a March observing run, is available in the Gallery. Read more about how these image animations are helping to test and refine AuxTel hardware and software in …

6 April 2021: The annual Waimea Solar System Walk is taking place this year from 15 March to 15 April 2021 as an in-person/virtual hybrid event in the town of Waimea on Hawai‘i Island, with some adjustments to accommodate COVID-19 safety measures. The self-guided and socially-distanced walk involves a series of sidewalk decals, each representing a different Solar System object. The decals are spaced out in proportion to the true distances between objects in the Solar System, allowing participants to ‘walk the Solar System’. An informative video about each object is accessible via a QR code at each decal. The videos are available in both English and for the first time also in ‘Ōlelo Hawaiʻi (the Hawaiian Language). The W. M. Keck Observatory, Canada France Hawaiʻi Telescope (CFHT) and University of Hawai‘i Institute for Astronomy in Hilo worked together to design this year's walk and NSF’s NOIRLab participated in the production and translation …

25 March 2021: More than 2000 people participated in the online activities that formed part of NSF’s NOIRLab’s AstroDay–Chile 2021 event last week, contributing to an annual astronomical fair known as Astronomy Day that brings together the most important scientific and tourist observatories in the country. In addition, during the March campaign of the Globe at Night program, more than 400 night sky measurements were made in Chile, marking an unprecedented milestone for this citizen science activity. Children, young people, older adults and entire families enjoyed the virtual activities that NSF’s NOIRLab offered via YouTube over three days, sharing with the community the latest advances in astronomy that were carried out in the most important research centers in Chile and across the world. This year the activities were designed so that the public had the opportunity to interact directly with scientists and workers from the scientific observatories in Chile and the main astronomy …

23 March 2021: Project & Science News The first completed filter for the Rubin Observatory LSST Camera has arrived at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The r-band filter was delivered to SLAC on March 12th, marking an exciting milestone for the LSST Camera team. Read more about the event in this news item, and see photos in the Gallery. A new time-lapse video that shows ten years of Rubin Observatory construction in just one minute is now available on our YouTube Channel. The Rubin Observatory Communications team is partnering with the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) during the month of March for a social media campaign highlighting Dr. Vera C. Rubin and Dr. Nancy Grace Roman as part of Women’s History Month. Search #RubinRomanStars to follow the campaign. Operations Updates This year, the Rubin Observatory’s Data Preview 0 (DP0) will make simulated LSST-like data products available in the Rubin Science Platform (RSP) for up …

23 March 2021: The first completed filter for the Rubin Observatory LSST Camera has arrived at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory! The r-band filter was delivered to SLAC on 12 March 2021, marking an exciting milestone for the LSST Camera team. The r-band filter is one of six filters that will be used in the LSST Camera, each optimized to collect light within a specific range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Each filter is about 76 cm (30 inches) in diameter and weighs about 41 kg (90 lbs). The filters are labeled u, g, r, i, z, and y; together they cover the electromagnetic spectrum between the ultra-violet (u) and the near-infrared (y). The r-band filter, which covers a spectral band near the center of this range, will be one of the filters used most often during the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). It will also be particularly useful for testing the camera …

18 March 2021: Astronomy is predominantly a visual science. However, an important tool is needed to produce breathtaking color images from the observations made with telescopes such as the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, or the telescopes of NSF’s NOIRLab at the international Gemini Observatory, Kitt Peak National Observatory, and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. The key to unlocking those magnificent vistas is specialized image-processing software. Since its first release in 2004, FITS Liberator has been a popular free image-processing tool to help astronomers — and the public — produce beautiful images from observations recorded in the Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) file format commonly used in astronomy. Among image-processing experts this process is known as ‘liberation’; the data are converted to an image format that can be edited in standard graphics software. In the process, users have access to powerful tools to manage the high dynamic range intrinsic to astronomical …

15 March 2021: The Ministers of Science and Environment in Chile recently invited citizens to participate in NSF’s NOIRLab’s Globe at Night program to identify how the light of cities affects astronomical observations. This activity was a prelude to Astronomy Day held each March in Chile. Globe at Night is a citizen science program that seeks to raise awareness of the importance of preserving and protecting dark skies. Citizens are invited to rate the brightness of their night sky by observing the constellation of Orion and choosing which star chart matches what they see. “We are very happy to be able to collaborate with the authorities in the challenge that Chileans have to protect the quality of our skies, in particular in the north of the country,” said Vice President and Director for Chile of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) Mario Hamuy. “Through NOIRLab's citizen education program, Globe at …

10 March 2021: Tuesday 2 March 2021 was a day for some serious heavy lifting on the summit; the Top-End Assembly (TEA) for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) was lifted by crane into the observatory dome and installed on the TMA of the Simonyi Survey Telescope. The task was completed successfully and was a highly celebrated milestone for Rubin Observatory. The lift may have been carried out in one day, but the teams involved have spent weeks preparing for this complex and critical maneuver. You might remember the 500-ton crane that was used for work on the summit before the March 2020 construction shutdown; it arrived back on Cerro Pachón in late February 2021 to assist with a series of heavy lifts, including this one. The TEA weighs approximately 28 tons, and the base of the crane must be stationed outside the observatory building; this lift angle makes the …

9 March 2021: Experience the story of NSF’s NOIRLab through the people, science and technology that are revolutionizing humanity’s view of the Universe. NOIRLab Stories is our new blog that takes readers behind the scenes at NOIRLab with deep dives into science, technology and, most importantly, the people who are bringing the Universe into focus. The blog explores the people and personalities that enable the science and technology of NOIRLab’s observatories, including Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, Gemini Observatory on Maunakea in Hawai‘i and Cerro Pachón in Chile, Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory operations, and the Community Science and Data Center in Tucson, Arizona. Twice monthly NOIRLab Stories brings the compelling human story of science and technology to life through the eyes of the people who make it happen. Oh, and be prepared for a surprise or two as the people of NOIRLab share their interests …

9 March 2021: Project & Science News The Top-End Assembly (TEA) for the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) was lifted by crane into the observatory dome and installed on the TMA on March 2nd. The task was completed successfully and was a highly celebrated milestone for Rubin Observatory; read the details in this news item, and view photos in the Gallery. There is also a video created from drone footage on our YouTube channel. The LSST Camera i-band and z-band coated filters were shipped from the coating vendor, Materion, in Massachusetts, and received without any issues at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where they will be mounted in their frames prior to delivery to SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. These are the second and third filters to be delivered from the vendor. Although we hoped to enjoy the Rubin Observatory Project and Community Workshop (PCW) in person this year, Rubin 2021 will take place virtually during …

4 March 2021: This year’s virtual Journey Through the Universe program, running from 1 to 5 March 2021, is nearing completion with stunning results. Owing to the pandemic, the event took place entirely online for the first time to limit the risk to educators and participants. Together with about 50 local and national partners and collaborators, NSF’s NOIRLab leads this annual program. By the end of the week, the Journey astronomy educators will have reached almost 6000 students in almost 300 virtual classrooms across Hawai‘i who are introduced to the wonders of the Universe and the possibilities of a career in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields. On Monday, the Hawai‘i Island Chamber of Commerce and Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry virtual reception was attended by around 60 members of our local community, demonstrating the strong support from the region for Journey. Wednesday’s public talk by Lars Lindberg Christensen entitled Exciting …

3 March 2021: The astronomical image archive from NSF’s NOIRLab has become interactive thanks to a new web application developed to explore the sky. Harnessing the power of the Aladin Interactive Sky Atlas, the app allows users to learn more about the images in a visual way, such as zooming out from an image to see the object’s location in space, zooming in to investigate the details of an image, selecting views of an object taken by different telescopes, or applying layers to view the subject in different wavelengths of light. This new interactive app can be found on the bottom-right side of each image’s webpage, where other information about the image (such as colors, filters, and coordinates) is provided. The NOIRLab image is overlaid on top of images from astronomical surveys, allowing the user to explore the celestial context of the astronomical object featured in the image. The Aladin Interactive Sky Atlas …

23 February 2021: Project & Science News The Survey Cadence Optimization Committee (SCOC) has extended the deadline for the Cadence Notes Solicitation Call from March 15th to April 15th, 2021. The change is intended to provide the community additional time to evaluate the new simulations in v1.7 (in particular, the new and improved ‘rolling cadence’ simulations in this release). Additional documentation about all of the available simulations can be found with the v1.7 release announcement. More information about cadence optimization is also available on community.lsst.org (login required), and detailed technical discussions are also taking place on the Slack channel #sims-maf Rubin Observatory Auxiliary Telescope (AuxTel) observing runs continue on Cerro Pachón; the second run of 2021 wrapped up in mid-February. The observing team on the summit continues to benefit from real-time remote support provided by people in four countries, on three different continents. The integration of telescope hardware and software is progressing well, …

9 February 2021: Project & Science News The Rubin Observatory Data Management (DM) team seeks input from the science community regarding which photo-z estimator(s) should be adopted to generate photometric redshifts (photo-z) for the LSST Data Release (DR) Object catalog. As part of DM's photo-z roadmap, which is summarized at this link, all are invited to join one or more of the monthly virtual photo-z drop-in discussions described on community.lsst.org (login required). The deadline for the Cadence Notes Solicitation Call from the Survey Cadence Optimization Committee (SCOC) has been updated from March 15th to April 15th, 2021. These Cadence Notes will provide feedback on the existing large set of survey cadence simulations to the SCOC. Additional details are available at this link. The first observing run of the Rubin Observatory Auxiliary Telescope (AuxTel) since the COVID-19 construction shutdown finished successfully; read details about this run and upcoming plans for AuxTel in this recent …

2 February 2021: Globe at Night is an international, online, citizen-science campaign, run by NSF’s NOIRLab to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution by inviting citizen-scientists to measure and submit their night sky brightness observations. Globe at Night had a record year last year, and this February it is inviting people to participate in the second “Love the Stars” campaign. Last year Globe at Night reached a number of record milestones thanks to partnerships with different groups around the world. By September 2020, the project had exceeded its own record for the number of measurements made in a calendar year (previously 24,000) and at the end of 2020 it reached over 29,500 measurements from 96 countries. The large number of observations indicates the robustness, accessibility, and inclusiveness of the program to international participants. In 2020 Globe at Night was ranked #2 of 20 of the top most-shared projects in SciStarter, …

26 January 2021: Project & Science News Rubin Observatory participated in the first all-virtual American Astronomical Society Winter Meeting (AAS237) on January 11-16, 2021. Details about the Rubin Open House, exhibit booth, and special sessions can be found in this recent news item. On January 19th, the Rubin Observatory Auxiliary Telescope (AuxTel) team resumed on-sky observations for the first time since the summit construction shutdown in March 2020. Observing Specialist Alysha Shugart, who joined Rubin Observatory in November 2020, participated in this observing run. Craig Lage was also part of the summit team after recently relocating to Chile. The onsite observers were supported by a remote team, allowing minor issues to be identified and solved in real time. Telescope pointing and imaging have now been re-verified and the team has begun to obtain spectral data. See a recent AuxTel image here. The AURA Base Facility in La Serena, Chile, has been completed after …

22 January 2021: The second (January 2021) edition of the NOIRLab Mirror newsletter is now available. This new, twice-yearly, newsletter focuses on news for the NOIRLab community, and showcases the science, technology, and developments across the five NOIRLab Programs: Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), Gemini Observatory, Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), and Vera C. Rubin Observatory Operations. This issue features articles on recent scientific results and technical developments from the NOIRLab Programs, perspectives on the peer review process, inclusion and diversity in astronomy, and an overview of current outreach events including the recent SATCON1 workshop on the impact of satellite constellations on astronomy. The NOIRLab Mirror builds on the traditions of its predecessors, the Gemini Focus newsletter and the NOAO Newsletter. NOIRLab Mirror is free and notifications of the release of future electronic issues can be requested here. A free subscription for printed copies can also be …