Announcements

7 July 2021: For the first time ever, the Solar System Walk — which has been a successful annual fixture in Waimea, Hawai‘i, for several years — will also take place in Hilo on Hawai‘i Island. The Solar System Walk will take place in the Liliʻuokalani Park and Gardens in Hilo, with some adjustments to accommodate COVID-19 safety measures. The Solar System Walk will be available from 7 July 2021, and will continue for one month. The start date coincides with the celestial Tanabata Festival, which is celebrated at Liliʻuokalani Gardens. The Hilo Solar System Walk has been made possible by the NSF’s NOIRLab’s first-time partnership with the Friends of Liliʻuokalani Gardens. “We are excited to host the Solar System Walk and bring this event to Hilo, especially when it coincides with the Tanabata Festival,” said K.T. Cannon-Eger, president of the Friends of Liliʻuokalani Gardens. “On 7 July we’ll be providing visitors with …

2 July 2021: NSF’s NOIRLab is launching four new logos for the NOIRLab family: one each for the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), and the Mid-Scale Observatories (MSO) which comprise KPNO and CTIO. The international Gemini Observatory logo remains unchanged. With an eye to the existing NOIRLab logo and Vera C. Rubin Observatory logo, the designers wanted to ensure the new logos conveyed astronomy, are recognizable to non-specialists, are attractive for scientists, and appealing to the public. The star cluster from the NOIRLab and Rubin Observatory logos is a unifying element among the NOIRLab Program logos and will always be featured on the left of each of these logos. Representations of the 4-meter telescopes and the mountain ranges are used in the KPNO, CTIO, and MSO logos as they are quickly and easily recognizable to scientists and non-specialists as astronomical facilities. The …

30 June 2021: Project & Science News Don’t forget to register (at this link) for the 2021 Rubin Project and Community Workshop (PCW), which will be held virtually August 9-13. A comprehensive re-baseline review for the Rubin Construction Project was conducted on June 15-17. The review committee complimented the Rubin team on the high-quality documentation provided, and expressed confidence in the team and the success of the project. A group photo is available in the Gallery. The Project team will now work to address the recommendations from the committee. The Rubin Auxiliary Telescope (AuxTel) returned to on-sky observing with a nighttime run during the week of June 7th, after a hiatus in May due to increased COVID-19 restrictions. AuxTel is proving to be a valuable test platform for the rest of the Observatory, the next observing run is scheduled for early July. Enjoy this video, an animation of images taken with AuxTel spectrograph …

8 June 2021: Project & Science News Registration is now open for the 2021 Rubin Project and Community Workshop (PCW), which will be held virtually August 9-13. Details and a link to register are on the meeting website (login required). Congratulations to the Data Management Science Quality and Reliability Engineering (SQuaRE) team, who were recently awarded the “2021 Built on InfluxDB Award for Best Application” for the Rubin Observatory Engineering Facilities Database (EFD). The SQuaRE team built the EFD to serve as the central repository for telemetry data from different subsystems relating to the Rubin summit facility, and it is powered by InfluxDB, a time-series database. Details about the award can be found here. The Data Management team is seeking community feedback on Rubin’s developing plans for the timeseries features it will compute on alert and Data Release lightcurves, as discussed in this technote. Details are available on community.lsst.org (login required). The floor …

8 June 2021: Scientists working with the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF NOIRLab and located in the Coquimbo Region of northern Chile, are celebrating a major milestone: the instrument has taken its one-millionth exposure. One of the most powerful digital cameras in the world, the Dark Energy Camera was designed specifically for the Dark Energy Survey. It was funded by the Department of Energy (DOE) and was built and tested at DOE's Fermilab. This milestone came while performing observations as part of the DECam eROSITA Survey. This visible-light survey is designed to follow up on targets observed in X-rays by the eROSITA X-ray instrument, which sits aboard the Russian–German Spectrum–Roentgen-Gamma (Spektr-RG) mission, an observatory that launched in 2019 to map the cosmos. At the time of this exposure DECam was making an observation of a galaxy …

26 May 2021: Project & Science News Don’t forget to mark your calendars for the 2021 Rubin Project and Community Workshop (PCW), which will be held virtually August 9-13. We anticipate that registration will open by the end of May. The Community Forum landing page has been re-designed to align with Rubin Observatory visual identity guidelines, you can admire the new look at community.lsst.org. Rubin Observatory now has a permanent, operational overhead bridge crane (OBC) in the dome; it was certified after successful load testing on May 14th. This 18-ton capacity OBC will be used to continue telescope assembly and system integration during construction, and will facilitate maintenance and repairs throughout Rubin Observatory operations. More details are available in this recent news item. The system integration team has been working on the refrigeration pathfinder, testing the compressors and load heaters, and they plan to turn on the whole system very shortly. The team …

12 May 2021: NOIRLab is proud to announce that Joan Najita has been named a 2021–2022 fellow at Harvard Radcliffe Institute, joining an extraordinary group of artists, scientists, scholars, and practitioners who will learn from and inspire one another in a year of discovery and interdisciplinary exchange in Cambridge. As the 2021–2022 Edward, Frances, and Shirley B. Daniels Fellow, Najita will pursue an individual project in a community dedicated to exploration and inquiry. Her work will focus primarily on understanding the diversity and origins of planetary systems: why planetary systems surrounding nearby stars have architectures that differ from that of our own planetary system, the Solar System, and how to understand the new population of distant giant planets whose existence has been inferred from images of their formation environments. “The 2021–2022 fellowship cohort is characterized by intellectual reach, excellence in scholarship, and creativity,” said Radcliffe Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin, who is also the Daniel …

11 May 2021: Project & Science News The Survey Cadence Optimization Committee (SCOC) received 38 Cadence Notes, and extends their thanks to all the teams who submitted them. The submitted Cadence Notes are publicly available at this link. The SCOC members will deliver their draft cadence recommendation at the 2021 Project and Community workshop (Aug 9-13). The SCOC also announces a second virtual SCOC workshop, scheduled for Nov 16–17, 2021. It will be similar in format to the first SCOC workshop, with the agenda optimized after discussions at the Project and Community workshop. The SCOC anticipates Nov 23, 2021 as the deadline for submitting any brief written post-workshop input; further details will be provided at the SCOC workshop. Please mark your calendars! As part of the Rubin Observatory Data Management (DM) team's Roadmap to Photometric Redshifts (PZ) for the LSST Object Catalog (DMTN-049), the science community is invited to submit Letters of Recommendation …

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 …

13 April 2021: Arjun Dey, an astronomer at NSF’s NOIRLab, has been awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in astronomy & astrophysics for 2021. Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of past achievement and exceptional promise for future accomplishments. Since 1925 the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has awarded annual fellowships in the arts and sciences. This year the foundation awarded 184 fellowships from nearly 3000 applicants, but only two are in astronomy and astrophysics. From the Guggenheim announcement: “In all, 49 scholarly disciplines and artistic fields, 73 different academic institutions, 28 states and 2 Canadian provinces are represented in this year’s class of Fellows, who range in age from 31 to 85.” Dey will use the grant to spend time exploring NOIRLab’s existing survey data in search of fast-moving faint stars and using these to investigate the structure of the Milky Way. We congratulate him on this award!

6 April 2021: Sian Proctor, a participant in the Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassadors Program (ACEAP) in 2016, has been selected as an astronaut by SpaceX. The Inspiration4 mission, scheduled to launch sometime after 15 September 2021, will orbit Earth for three days and conduct a variety of experiments. Proctor is a geoscientist, explorer, space artist, and science communication specialist with a passion for space exploration. Her motto is Space2inspire, and she encourages people to use their unique, one-of-a-kind strengths and passion to inspire those within their reach and beyond. “I feel so fortunate to be a member of the Inspiration4 crew and to be able to use Space2inspire to impact educators from around the world,” Proctor said. “ACEAP is an excellent example of how looking up at the night sky is a shared experience that can inspire us all.” ACEAP is a collaboration between Associated Universities Inc. (AUI) and Association of Universities …

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 …

25 March 2021: On 18 March 2021 AURA, which operates NSF’s NOIRLab and its Programs in Chile, the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) and the international Gemini Observatory, became the first observatory in Chile to obtain the “COVID-19 Seal” from the Chilean Security Association (ACHS), marking its outstanding management efforts to prevent coronavirus infections. This certification granted by ACHS recognizes those organizations that have undertaken outstanding management activities to address the pandemic and that comply with the requirements established by the Chilean Ministry of Health and the Governmental Superintendency of Social Security (SUSESO), as well as the best international practices for controlling the pandemic in large organizations. The management process began with the development of a COVID-19 Management Plan designed by AURA. Then ACHS developed a physical and documentary audit, whose verification process during January and February 2021 demonstrated the great work of the observatory in implementing the measures to prevent infections. It …

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 …