Rubin Digest 25 June 2019

25 June 2019

Project & Science News

We are aware of the proposal by the United States House Science Committee to rename LSST the Vera Rubin Survey Telescope. Dr. Vera C. Rubin made significant contributions to astronomy and the advancement of women in science, and we appreciate the Committee’s recognition of her work. AURA, which has a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation to construct and operate LSST, is continuing its ongoing dialog with the agency regarding formal designations for the facility which include any direction from Congress.

Just a few days remain to take advantage of early registration pricing for LSST 2019, which ends June 30th. Click here for a link to registration and to view the first draft of the meeting agenda.

The LSST Commissioning Camera (ComCam) arrived at the LSST Project Office in Tucson on June 20th, after being shipped from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, where it was constructed. ComCam is a small, one raft version of the full LSST Camera that will be used for testing and early commissioning of the camera, telescope, site infrastructure, and data management systems. In Tucson, ComCam will have additional optical components installed and undergo testing before being shipped to Chile later this year. Read more about ComCam in this recent Symmetry article.

The Secondary Mirror (M2) Coating Readiness Review took place in Chile on June 18-19. The purpose of the review was to assess the overall process for coating the M2 mirror, and to ensure the readiness of the planned work, procedures and equipment. Based on the successful outcome of this review, the M2 coating campaign has been scheduled for July and will be performed by LSST personnel with onsite assistance from Von Ardenne, the coating plant vendor.

The LSST Data Management Leadership Team (DMLT) gathered for a face-to-face meeting at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) in Illinois, June 3-6. Topics discussed by the team included preparation for upcoming reviews, status updates and planning for middleware development, release process & policies, and outcomes from the recent Science Platform Final Design Review. Photos from the event are available in the LSST Gallery.

The LSST Community Broker Workshop took place in Seattle, WA, on June 19-21. This workshop brought together LSST Project personnel, representatives of the LSST Science Collaborations, and proposers of community brokers in order to open lines of communication between the different groups. As a follow-up, the workshop’s Scientific Organizing Committee will lead the production of a white paper to capture ideas and proposed directions forward for building a global ecosystem of brokers, science platforms, and target and observation managers (TOMs) for transient science with the LSST alert stream.  

LSST Corporation News

Applications are now being accepted to attend the workshop, “Managing Follow-up Observations in the Era of ZTF and LSST,” Sept. 30th-Oct. 4th at Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, CA. The workshop will be an interactive introduction to the key technologies and facilities for follow-up observing that will drive astronomy in the LSST era, and a chance for scientists to influence their development. More information and a link to the application can be found here. Applications must be received by July 15th for full consideration. Travel support will be provided for those from LSST Corporation member institutions.

Information for Project Members

LSST has been featured in the news a lot recently and journalists have been getting in touch with project members. This is a reminder that if you are contacted by members of the media, the LSST Communications Office is available to guide you (communications-team@lists.lsst.org). Please also refer to the LSST Project Media Interactions Policy as a resource.

Personnel News

Isidro Ocaranza joined the Telescope & Site subsystem as Summit Janitor on June 10th. In this role, Isidro will be responsible for maintaining cleanliness of the LSST summit facility.   

Upcoming Meetings with LSST Involvement

(those with asterisk* are LSSTC funded):

2019

July 15-19: LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC) meeting, APC, Paris, France

August 5-7: LSST Dark Matter Workshop 2019, Chicago, IL*

August 6-9: Joint Directors Review, SLAC, Menlo Park, CA

August 12-16: LSST 2019 Project and Community Workshop, Tucson, AZ

August 19-28: La Serena School for Data Science: Applied Tools for Data-driven Sciences, La Serena, Chile*

August 27-30: NSF/DOE Joint Status Review, Tucson, AZ

September 11-13: AMCL meeting, La Serena, Chile

September 30-October 4: Managing Follow-up Observations in the Era of ZTF and LSST Workshop, Pasadena, CA*

October 22-24: Kavli From Petabytes to Science Workshop, Boston, MA