Rubin Digest 18 July 2018

18 July 2018

Project & Science News

Registration for LSST 2018 is now closed. Approximately 320 people registered for the meeting, the highest attendance number to date. The block agenda for the meeting is available at this link.

The Camera team reports a major project accomplishment: in late June, construction of the Cryostat assembly was completed at SLAC. The assembly was moved to the SLAC IR2 Cleanroom Facility, where the Cryostat pump plate was attached, and the assembly underwent early vacuum-testing. A photo of the completed Cryostat is available in the LSST Gallery.

The Camera team received the last sensor to be provided by the UA Imaging Technology Laboratory (ITL) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) on July 12. The second sensor vendor, which is providing the balance of sensors required by the project, has fewer than 25 sensors to complete. At BNL, assembly of science-raft tower modules (RTMs) using these sensors is moving quickly toward completion of 21 production units by the end of 2018.

In June at Arizona Optical Systems (AOS), the L2 lens for the LSST Camera successfully completed a bonding process that attached the lens to the pads that will mount to the composite ring of the L1-L2 assembly. The assembly is the mechanical structure that holds the L1 and L2 lenses, maintaining the correct separation between the two. The L1 lens is at REOSC in France, waiting for Broadband Anti-Reflection (BBAR) coating. Photos of the L2 lens at AOS are available in the LSST Gallery.

Following vacuum-integrity testing, Thales SESO (TSESO) delivered the L3 Camera lens test window to SLAC IR2 in late June. The test window is an optical flat that stands in for the L3 lens during RTM testing using the Bench for Optical Testing (BOT) at IR2. The BOT enables the Integration and Test team (I&T) to install RTMs within the Cryostat and to do follow-on metrology and electro-optical testing.

From Spain, a new video in the LSST Gallery shows the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) rotating on its azimuth at full speed (10.5 degrees per second). This successful test indicates that TMA team will soon be ready to start verifying the most stringent performance requirements in preparation for disassembling and shipping the TMA to Chile later in 2018.

LSST Corporation News

A reminder that July 20 is the application deadline for the LSST Cadence Hackathon at the Flatiron Institute in Manhattan, September 17-19. There is no registration fee; apply at this link. More details about the event are included on page 10 of the Call for White Papers.  

Personnel News

Christopher Waters joined the Data Management Subsystem on July 1 as Scientist and Pipelines Developer, based at Princeton. Chris will be working on various aspects of the LSST Science Pipelines; initially he’ll be focusing on adapting the Pipelines code to work with the new data access and pipeline execution middleware, and contributing to algorithmic development and testing.  

LSST currently has several open positions, including Senior Optics Lead, Telescope & Site Software Manager, and Deputy Project Manager. Visit the LSST is Hiring webpage for more information.

Upcoming Meetings with LSST Involvement

(those with asterisk* are LSSTC funded):

2018

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

July 30-Aug 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*