rubinann16001 — Announcement

Rubin Digest 15 January 2016

15 January 2016

Project News

With our first Weekly News Digest of 2016 we link to our holiday card, and point out that only the tree was added with PhotoShop - everything else is real! Additional construction images are being added weekly to the LSST Image Gallery; others appear on Facebook, accessible directly or from the LSST News Page.

LSST had a strong presence at AAS227, with a well-attended Town Hall, a table at the Career Fair, active participation in the LSST-supported Hack Day, and an exhibit in the NSF pavilion showing our updated video. Project Scientist Zeljko Ivezic’s talk on the LSST Observing Cadence has been archived in Zenodo and made available through the online Image Gallery and Publications links on lsst.org.

Operations planning is proceeding rapidly, with a review of operations functions to take place Feb 11-12, 2016 in Tucson. The review panel is: Bob Blum (NOAO), Adam Bolton (NOAO), Brenna Flaugher (Fermilab), Nancy Levenson (Gemini), Ashish Mahabal (Caltech), and Connie Rockosi (UCSC/Lick). Review materials will be shared with LSST Project members and presented for discussion at the February Joint Technical Meeting.

Operations discussions are also underway with AURA's other ground-based optical facilities, NOAO and Gemini, to identify possible models for operational coordination and resource sharing. These discussions will include focus on NSF cost efficiencies that could be achieved by a closer coordination between LSST and NOAO during operations.

Personnel Notes

Welcome to LSST Telescope & Site, Tomi Vucina, Coating System Engineer. Tomi transferred from Gemini South where he worked twelve years with the Coating and Optics group. He is now working for LSST and will be living in Tucson the next few years to manage the LSST Coating Plant contract effort and support other Telescope related activities.