Rubin Digest 05 July 2018

5 July 2018

Project & Science News

The LSST science community is invited to play a key role in the definition of LSST’s Observing Strategy. The LSST Project is now soliciting white papers to  help plan various aspects of the survey strategy. The deadline for white paper submission is November 30, 2018. Click here for more details.

The registration deadline for LSST 2018 is July 9; if you haven’t already registered, it’s time! A detailed block agenda for the meeting is now available.

An LSST team recently visited the Coating Plant vendor Von Ardenne in Germany in mid-June to confirm coating functionality and to approve packaging and shipment of the Coating Plant to Chile. As a result of this successful visit, transport arrangements are underway; a vessel to transport the Coating Plant has been booked for August 22, 2018. The Washing Station, another deliverable in the Coating Plant contract, shipped on June 24 and is now in transit to Chile.

Testing of the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) has begun at the Asturfeito factory in Spain. This short video, showing servo testing of the TMA’s elevation axis at 3.5 degrees per second, illustrates that the safety interlocks, hydrostatic bearings, motors, encoders, and servo are all successfully working together. Testing of the TMA is scheduled to continue over the next two months; these early results are very encouraging.

The Telescope and Site (T&S) software team achieved a milestone during the first multi-instrument control test on June 7. This early integration activity successfully integrated three Auxiliary Telescope instruments: the monochromator, electrometer, and Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) spectrometer, by operating them in concert. Photos taken during this activity are available in the LSST Gallery.

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) hosted a workshop June 19-21 titled Data Visualization and Exploration in the LSST Era. Supported in part by the LSST Corporation, the three-day event brought together a group of experts to discuss strategies and methods for data visualization and exploration with the help of current cloud and container technologies. A group photo taken at the workshop is available in the LSST Gallery.

Alex Withers, LSST Information Security Officer at NCSA, presented a talk titled “Security Program at LSST” on June 25 at the NSF Trusted CI workshop. A video of his presentation can be found on YouTube, and the slides are archived at this link.

LSST Corporation News

LSST Corporation and the Simons Center for Computational Astrophysics announced an LSST Cadence Hackathon at the Flatiron Institute in Manhattan, September 17 and 18, with an optional 3rd day September 19. There is no registration fee. Travel support will be provided for attendees from LSSTC member institutions and for other attendees as funds allow. More details about the event are included on page 10 of the Call for White Papers. Apply by July 20 at this link.

Personnel News

Daihana Spencer joined LSST as an Administrative Assistant on June 20; she will assist the admin team in Chile with daily administrative tasks for the next six months.

Eric Coughlin joined the Telescope & Site subsystem as an Integration Software Specialist on July 2. In this role, Eric will assist with the design, implementation, verification, and operation of hardware components and their control software.

Upcoming Meetings with LSST Involvement

(those with asterisk* are LSSTC funded):

2018

July 10-12: 1st LSST Solar System Readiness Sprint, Seattle, Washington.*

July 23-27: LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration meeting, DE School and Sprint Day, Carnegie Mellon University PA*

July 30-August 3: NSF/DOE Joint Status Review, Tucson, AZ

August 13-17: LSST Project and Community Workshop 2018, Tucson, AZ

September 17-19: LSST Cadence Hackathon, Flatiron Institute, NY

September 27-28: LSST Corporation Executive Board Retreat, Tucson, AZ*

October 21-26: AAS Division of Planetary Sciences (DPS) 50th Annual Meeting, Knoxville, TN

October 22-26: LSST-DESC Autumn Sprint Week, Edinburgh, Scotland*

October 24-25: LSST Corporation Institutional & Executive Board Meeting, Tucson, AZ*