Rubin Digest 13 December 2022

A holiday message from the Rubin Construction and Rubin Operations leadership teams: It has been a challenging and productive year for the Rubin Observatory team. We are thankful for having the opportunity to work on such an exciting project and to have such a dedicated and capable team moving us ahead toward one of the world’s most amazing observatories and this unique survey. We have especially enjoyed the interaction with our science community through multiple large meetings and numerous committee/collaboration meetings. We want to thank you, our community, for all your effort and support as we have emerged from the pandemic and make progress toward the finish. Looking to the new year, we will continue to keep you informed as plans are updated and we look forward to our continued interaction and your support. We invite you to view this year’s Rubin Observatory holiday card on our website—happy holidays to all, and look for the next News Digest in mid-January.

Rubin Observatory will be participating at the AAS Winter meeting (AAS 241) in Seattle, WA on January 8-12. If you’re attending the meeting, we hope you’ll stop by the Rubin booth (#202G in the NSF Pavilion of the exhibit hall). We will also be hosting a Town Hall on Tuesday, January 11th at 6:30 p.m. Check the AAS meeting agenda for the location. 

The Education and Public Outreach (EPO) team, Project leadership, and other key staff members participated in a Construction Acceptance review on November 30-December 1st. Rubin staff gave presentations on all aspects of the as-built EPO program, verification test results, and plans for the team’s transition to Operations. The review committee delivered a positive report at the conclusion of the review, confirming that the EPO subsystem has completed Construction. Watch for a public rollout of the EPO program after the new year!

A combined team on the summit, including Rubin's observing specialists and members of the Commissioning, Dome, and Telescope & Site groups, have been moving the dome and telescope regularly (most weeknights) to conduct software/hardware stress testing, and pointing tests with the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) using the star tracker. See recent photos of Rubin Observatory with the TMA visible through the open dome in the Gallery.

Staff highlights for December are available on the Rubin project website. This month, we feature Carlos Barria, Seth Digel, Robinson Godoy, Bruno C. Quint, and Nima Sedaghat. 

It’s a great time to think about being kind to your family, friends, and colleagues—we hope you enjoy the latest kindness page, recently added to the Rubin website. 

Rubin Observatory swag items, including t-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, and more, are available for purchase in our not-for-profit online store. 

LSST Corporation News:

Welcome to Lee Gordon, our new LSSTC Project Manager, initially supporting LINCC Programs. Born in Seattle, Lee has worked on a number of large-scale scientific projects, performing (nationwide) systems development and support, dataset troubleshooting and support, and platform-level support for each integrated enterprise layer. Outside work, Lee is an amateur astronomer inclined to art, literature and linguistics, holding national and state certifications in Portuguese medical, business, legal and social-services interpreting. 

Announcements & Opportunities

Congratulations to Guido Maulen, who was recently promoted to Senior IT Technician. Guido is responsible for several of the team's achievements and led many of the efforts related to the network infrastructure of Rubin. 

Congratulations also to Ian Órdenes on his promotion to Electronics Technician 1. Ian has participated in the integration and testing of all the telescope subsystems received on the summit, including troubleshooting and upgrades, and he played an important role in the integration and testing of the vertical platform lift and the integration and testing of the Primary/Secondary Mirror (M1M3) Cell.

Details about open positions with Rubin Observatory can be found on the Rubin jobs page.

Info for Project Members:

If you’d like to schedule a one-on-one meeting with Victor or Zeljko, please fill out this form to indicate your preferred (and backup) date and time. 

There is also an anonymous “suggestion box” for anyone to offer feedback at this link. 

Upcoming Meetings with Rubin Observatory Involvement

(those with an asterisk* are LSSTC funded):