Rubin Digest 21 April 2020

21 April 2020

Project & Science News

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Rubin Observatory Project & Community Workshop, (PCW) planned for August 10-14, has been cancelled. At the workshop we planned to celebrate both our new name and the 10th anniversary of the 2010 Decadal Survey ranking LSST number one as the highest priority in ground-based astronomy. We will now postpone this celebration to 2021. The Project and Operations teams are also looking at alternative opportunities to engage with the community this year (the week of August 10-14), and further updates will be coming soon.  

Also because of COVID-19 disruptions, the due date for community broker proposals will be extended for at least six months, with a due date no earlier than December 15th, 2020. The Rubin Observatory Science Advisory Committee (SAC) will provide further updates on the status of the Call on or before June 15th. By that time the SAC also expects to provide guidance on the use of sample alerts in the proposals. Please direct any questions to lsst-community-brokers@lists.lsst.org

The second inspection of the facilities and equipment on Cerro Pachón took place on April 14th—these inspections will occur on a regular basis until work can resume on the summit. Minor maintenance tasks included re-inflating the airbag cushions for the Primary/Tertiary Mirror (M1M3), applying protective grease and oil the Dome track and bogies, and adjusting the jacks that hold in place heavy elements of the partially assembled Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA). The following day, another crew went to the summit to remove the 200-ton capacity mobile construction crane, which will not be needed for the rest of the TMA installation. Photos from these summit visits are available in the Gallery. 

Operations Updates

The Rubin Observatory Operations team successfully completed its US Department of Energy (DOE) and National Science Foundation (NSF) Joint Operations Review for 2020. The review was a comprehensive checkup on the status of the operations plan, and marks the official beginning of annual reviews for the team. The independent committee, co-chaired by NSF Astronomy and DOE High Energy Physics Cosmic Frontiers, was held virtually over four days the week of April 13. The committee gave the Operations team excellent feedback for strengthening the plan as we head toward full operations, while commending the significant and “excellent” work that has been done up to this stage. A group photo from the virtual event is available in the Gallery.

LSST Corporation News

The LSST Corporation Enabling Science Committee is pleased to announce a Call for Proposals, with a total budget of approximately $100,000, to support activities to help prepare for LSST science. The deadline for submissions is midnight on Monday, May 11, 2020. Details of the Call can be found on the LSSTCorp web page, and the proposal template is available at this link. 

Upcoming Meetings with Rubin Observatory Involvement

(those with asterisk* are LSSTC funded):

2020

May 27-28: AURA Management Council for Rubin Construction (AMCR) Meeting, Virtual

June 1-3: Supermassive Black Hole Studies with the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), virtual meeting as part of AAS236

July 20-25: LSST DESC Meeting, Chicago, IL

July 21-24: Joint Directors Review (JDR) Tucson, AZ

August 10-14 (Cancelled):Rubin Observatory Project and Community Workshop 2020, Tucson, AZ

Aug 31-Sept 3: Joint Status Review, Menlo Park, CA

Sept 1-3: NSF Large Facilities Workshop, Alexandria, VA

Sept 23-24: AURA Management Council for Rubin Construction (AMCR) Meeting, Boston, MA

December 13-18: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation Conference, San Diego, CA