Rubin Observatory Digest for 04 May 2023

5 April 2023

Project & Science News

Planning is in full swing for the Rubin Operations Project and Community Workshop 2023 (PCW) which will take place at theMarriott University Park in Tucson, AZ the week of August 7, 2023. Visit the meeting website to submit session proposals, which are due May 19th (requires Rubin credentials or creation of an account). NEW THIS YEAR: Everyone is welcome to submit a request by June 16th (Login required) to contribute a talk or poster in-person at the PCW (also requires Rubin credentials or account creation), and students are especially encouraged. More information is available on community.lsst.org.

The summit team has done some heavy lifting on Cerro Pachón in the last couple of weeks, swapping out the components installed on the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA). First, they removed the mass surrogate for the M1M3 mirror assembly (a yellow cross-shaped structure that approximates the mass of the glass M1M3 mirror and its steel supporting cell). This mass surrogate was used throughout functional testing campaigns for the TMA, which culminated with the TMA designated as substantially complete at the end of March. After the M1M3 mass surrogate was transported to the maintenance floor (level 3) using the observatory’s vertical platform lift, the summit team brought the ~72-ton assembly of the M1M3 cell and surrogate mirror on their cart up to the telescope floor (level 8) and installed it on the TMA for the first time. The M1M3 cell and mirror surrogate assembly will be used for dynamic testing of the M1M3 mirror support system tilted to different pointing angles. Meanwhile, the M1M3 mass surrogate (the yellow cross) will be returned to the TMA in about November 2023—basically reversing the swap that was done last week—so the cell can then be integrated with the glass M1M3 mirror. See photos and a video in the Gallery.

The first of two half-day 2023 LSST Photo-z Virtual Symposia will take place on June 27th. The focus will be on the development and interoperability of software related to the generation and science validation of photometric redshifts for the LSST within the context of Rubin commissioning and international in-kind contribution programs. All are welcome to attend.

Rubin in the Media:

Read an article titled, “Inside the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, home of the world’s largest digital camera” featuring an interview with Rubin team member Kevin Reil, on the Digital Trends website.

LSST Corporation News:

Research Corporation for Science Advancement and the Heising-Simons Foundation are co-sponsoring Scialog: Early Science with the LSST, another strategic initiative to support early career researchers to prepare them for the new paradigm and treasure-trove of Rubin data that will come from LSST. The initiative will hold the first of its three annual meetings in May 2024 in Tucson, Arizona. These meetings are for Early Career Researchers to network across interdisciplinary boundaries, generate innovative ideas, and apply for catalyzing funding to pursue them. LSSTC plays an advisory role in this Scialog.

The LINCC Frameworks Team’s Python Project Template provides a convenient mechanism for the astronomy community to set up new GitHub projects or introduce functionality that enables more robust, collaborative development into existing projects. By answering a few text questions, the user can automatically generate a range of useful configurations for their project, including robust testing, formatting checks, and automatic documentation generation. The template is designed to be customizable and easily updatable as tooling changes. For more information, see the Python Project Template tech talk or the github repository.

Operations Updates:

The Rubin In-kind Program Coordination (IPC) team led the first international In-kind Assembly on April 17th. Approximately 60 attendees from the international programs and the general community received a brief update on the program, followed by talks from two contribution teams: the UK Data Access Center (DAC) and the Milankovic 1.4-meter telescope in Serbia. The IPC team plans to hold these assemblies quarterly going forward. The session recording is available at this link.

Reminder: All Data Preview 0 (DP0) delegates are invited to a DP0 Virtual Summer School, scheduled for June 12-16, 2023. This Summer School has been designed as an accelerated learning experience to enable DP0 delegates to do Rubin-related research, focusing on the DP0.2 dataset. More information and a link to register are available on community.lsst.org.

Personnel Announcements & Opportunities:

Yumi Choi joined the System Performance Department as a Rubin Community Scientist on May 1st. She will be cross-appointed with the NOIRLab Community Science and Data Center (CSDC) and will be located in Tucson, AZ.

Please spread the word, Rubin is looking to add to our growing Observing Specialist team with new positions available for Early-stage career Observing Specialists and mid-stage career Observing Specialists. Applications received by June 16th will be considered for the first round of interviews. Other open positions with Rubin Observatory can be found on the Rubin hiring 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 date and time.

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

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

Upcoming Meetings with Rubin Observatory Involvement 

(those with an asterisk* are LSSTC funded):

2023

May 17	Agency Quarterly Review, Washington, DC
May 18-19	AURA Management Council for Rubin Observatory (AMCR) meeting, Washington, DC
June 12-14	LSST Galaxies Science Collaboration meeting, University Paris Cité
June 12-16	Statistical Changes in Modern Astronomy (SCMA) VIII, Pennsylvania State University
July 24-28	Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC) Meeting, SLAC
August 7-11	Rubin 2023 Project & Community Workshop, Tucson, AZ
August 21-25	Joint Status Review, Tucson
September 25-29	LSST@Europe5, Poreč, Croatia
November 5-9	Astronomical Data Analysis Software & Systems (ADASS) conference, Tucson, AZ

Upcoming Deadlines:

May 19	Propose a session (Login required) at Rubin 2023 PCW
June 16	Request a poster/talk at Rubin 2023 PCW