Rubin Digest 09 December 2020

9 December 2020

Project & Science News

Rubin Observatory now has an official logo! The logo premiered on December 3rd with a press release, social media posts, and announcements on all the Rubin communications channels. The logo is a visual representation of Rubin Observatory’s central purpose: to collect light from celestial objects and transform it into data for scientific discovery. Read more about the logo and its development in this news item.  

The Rubin Observatory Commissioning Camera (ComCam), arrived safely at the summit facility on November 16th, and has successfully completed functional testing. The ComCam quad box, which contains the utilities necessary to operate the camera, has been integrated with the refrigeration pathfinder, which will allow ComCam to condition and demonstrate the custom-made refrigeration system on the telescope before the LSST Camera is installed. Photos of ComCam in the white room of the summit facility are available in the Gallery.  

Dome cladding work continues to progress on Cerro Pachón, with the Dome on track to be enclosed within a few weeks. There are now about 60 people, including contractors and Rubin Observatory personnel, currently working on the summit. Photos of recent progress are available in the Gallery. 

Six new staff profiles for December are now featured on the Rubin Observatory website; you can read about Chuck Gessner, Diane Hascall, Hernán Herrera, Rémy Joseph, Françoise Virieux, and Bo Xin at this link.

Operations News

Rubin Observatory has finalized a three-year agreement to host its Interim Data Facility (IDF) on Google Cloud. The Rubin IDF will process astronomical data collected by Rubin Observatory in its commissioning phase, and make it available to the Rubin science community in advance of Rubin Observatory’s ten-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The IDF will allow the Rubin Operations team to become operations-ready and the Rubin science community to be survey-ready when LSST begins. More details are available in this news item.

The Rubin Observatory Community Engagement Team (CET) thanks everyone who has participated so far in its ongoing discussion series. These informal conversations provide an opportunity for the community to provide input on the developing model for community engagement and support for science LSST. The final two discussions will take place on Wednesday, December 9th, and Thursday, December 19th. Information about the series is available at this link. 

Peronnel Announcements

Alysha Shugart joined the Systems Engineering team as Rubin Observatory Observing Specialist on November 23rd. Alysha, who came to Rubin from Gemini South/NOIRLab, will assist in systems integration and commissioning activities and provide nightly observing support for both the main telescope/camera system and the Auxiliary Telescope system. 

Yee Ting Li joined the pre-Operations Data Production team on November 1st as Science Solutions Architect. Based at SLAC, Yee Ting will be involved in the planning and operations of the Rubin Interim Data Facility and the Rubin US Data Facility. 

Upcoming Meetings with Rubin Observatory Involvement

(those with asterisk* are LSSTC funded):

2020

December 8-9: Survey Cadence Optimization Committee (SCOC) Workshop on Cadence Notes, Virtual

December 13-18: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation Conference, Virtual

2021

Jan 11-15: AAS 237th Meeting, Virtual

Feb 1-5: Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC) Meeting, Virtual