rubinann16033 — Announcement

Rubin Digest 09 September 2016

9 September 2016

Project News

Jorge Vergara and Francisco Forster are visiting the University of Washington (UW) from the Center for Mathematical Modeling at the University of Chile. Jorge and Francisco are working with Colin Slater and Andy Connolly on developing new machine learning techniques for identifying artifacts within difference images (separating the wheat from the chaff). Jorge will be visiting UW until the end of September.

The AURA Management Council for LSST (AMCL) will meet in Tucson next week to provide oversight and advocacy for the management of the LSST. 

Also next week there will be a Manufacturing Readiness Review (MRR) of the LSST Camera Science Raft Sub-system at Brookhaven National Laboratory.  This MRR is a follow-on to two previous FDR-level reviews in 2015, meant to target recent updates to the electro-mechanical design of the Raft Tower Module as well as the Science Raft subsystem’s readiness to procure, fabricate and assemble the same.

On Cerro Pachón, construction is moving forward on the summit facility with addition of the first sections of blue steel structure added to the existing concrete foundation. These structures define the southern end of the facility and will support the exterior siding and roof on the building. Extensive concrete form work, scaffolding, and rebar are evident as the lower enclosure and telescope pier begin to project high above the summit plateau as seen in the most recent images from the site.

Now that the M1M3 mirror cell has been welded and stress relieved, the initial machining of the M1M3 cell weldment has begun at CAID Industries in Tucson.  Today’s blog posting includes a short video of the machining of the +4000 interface holes and precision interfaces between the cell and the glass mirror and the cell and the coating chamber.

Personnel News

Krzysztof Findeisen has joined the Data Management group as a Research Scientist at UW. He previously worked on developing scalable data analysis tools for validating the first Gaia data release and on analyzing variable star light curves with the Palomar Transient Factory. He will be contributing to LSST's nightly data analysis pipeline.

Meredith Rawls is joining the LSST Data Management team at the University of Washington as a postdoctoral research associate. Meredith completed her PhD at New Mexico State University this year, studying how red giant eclipsing binaries can be useful benchmarks for asteroseismology. She also holds degrees from San Diego State University and Harvey Mudd College. Meredith is delighted to return to her home state of Washington and apply her experience in programming and stellar astronomy.

In our Chile office, Oscar Nũnez has joined the LSST team as Technical Coordinator for Facility Infrastructure. Oscar is an Industrial Engineer with 34 years’ experience in the area of technical maintenance of industrial equipment and personnel management, most recently as Head of Facilities Operations at CTIO.

Risk Prevention Engineer Sandra Romero has transitioned to a full-time position with LSST as Safety Coordinator after originally joining our team in Chile in late 2015.  Sandra’s work experience includes more than ten years as a safety expert in the mining and construction industries; she previously worked as Safety Coordinator at Gemini Observatory.

Upcoming Meetings with LSST Involvement

(those with asterisk* are LSSTC funded):

2016

September 15-16: AURA Management Council Meeting for LSST Meeting, Tucson, AZ

September 27 – 29: AURA Board Meeting, Boulder, CO

October 3-4: NEO Survey Workshop *, University of Washington, WA

October 5-6: Face-to-Face LSSTC Board Meeting* in Tucson, AZ

October 16 – 21: LSST Workshop and Solar System Science Collaboration Meeting @ DPS 48 / EPSC 11, Pasadena, CA

October 27 - 29: Society of Women Engineers Meeting, Philadelphia, PA

November 7 – 9: LSST Operations Plan Review, Tucson, AZ

November 7-11: LSST DESC Hack Week *, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

November 16-18: Preparing for Supernova Science in the LSST Era: A Kick-Off Workshop *University of Pittsburgh, PA

December 1-2: Precision Astronomy with Fully Depleted CCDs*, BNL

Late Nov/ Early Dec: Towards Science in Chile with the LSST 2016 *Vina del Mar, Chile

2017

January 3: ZTF Community Workshop at AAS 229*, Grapevine, TX

January 3: LSST AGN Science Collaboration Roadmap Development Meeting* AAS 229 Meeting; Grapevine, TX

January 4: LSST Open House at AAS 229, Grapevine, TX, 7:30 – 9:00pm

March 15 - 17: Supernovae Workshop *, Northwestern University, IL

April 3-7: LSST DESC Hack Week *, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

May 22 – 25: Infrastructure for Time Domain Science in the Era of LSST, Tucson, AZ

August 14 – 18: LSST 2017 Project & Community Workshop, Tucson, AZ