rubinann19014 — Announcement

Rubin Digest 06 August 2019

6 August 2019

Project & Science News

We invite you to attend a free evening talk, “LSST and Black Holes,” on Thursday, August 15, during the LSST Project and Community Workshop (login required). Featured speakers are LSST Project Manager Victor Krabbendam, University of Arizona astrophysicist Feryal Ozel, and Northwestern University’s Raffaella Margutti. Everyone is welcome and no registration is necessary. More information and speaker bios are available at this link.

After additional study, LSST has released an updated statement on the large-scale deployment of low Earth orbit satellite constellations. The updated wording can be found at this link.

The LSST Auxiliary Telescope (AuxTel) achieved engineering first light on the night of July 23rd, on Cerro Pachón, with all its system components (both hardware and control software) operational, and the telescope pointed at the sky. The AuxTel still has a number of outstanding items to be completed, but this initial on-sky testing indicated that things are on the right track.

At SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the LSST Camera team has successfully inserted the four production corner rafts inside the cryostat, marking the official start of the focal plane integration. Nine science rafts will be inserted in the next couple of months, leading to an intermediate electro-optical test before the remaining rafts are installed.

On Cerro Pachón, the LSST Secondary Mirror (M2) received its first reflective coating on July 16th. Testing at the conclusion of the campaign confirmed that the mirror coating not only met, but exceeded reflectivity requirements. More details about the activity can be found in this recent news item.

The LSST Primary/Tertiary Mirror (M1M3) cell, which arrived on Cerro Pachón in mid-July, was successfully moved into the LSST observatory building on July 25th. The M1M3 cell (the steel structure that will support the mirror) was placed on rubber mats on the maintenance floor of the facility (photo at this link), but has since been moved onto the M1M3 transport cart. This milestone marks the beginning of the M1M3 cell and surrogate mirror integration on the summit.

The LSST Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) departed Spain for Chile aboard the vessel Lisa Auerbach on July 29th. The disassembled, marine-wrapped pieces of the TMA were loaded without damage despite the challenge presented by their unusual sizes and shapes. Photos from the ship loading are available in the LSST Gallery. The TMA is expected to arrive in Chile in early September.

The “Big Data - Small Planets” workshop, which brought together experts in the analysis of astronomical time series to discuss machine learning and big data challenges in exoplanet photometry, spectroscopy, and population synthesis was held in Israel on July 7-11. A full report on the workshop is available on the LSST Community Forum (login required) and a link to presentations is available on the workshop website.

Personnel News

Juan Lopez joined the Telescope and Site subsystem on August 1st as a mechanical integration technician. As a member of the summit Assembly, Integration, and Verification (AIV) team, he will provide support to mechanical activities for assembly and integration of telescope and site mechanical systems, starting with the M1M3 cell assembly.

The LSST Education and Public Outreach team is now accepting applications for a Web Designer and a Web Developer. Additional opportunities with LSST, including IT Network Engineer, Software Engineer, Senior Software Engineer, and IT Systems Engineer are available on the LSST hiring website. Help us spread the word!