Rubin Observatory Digest for 31 October 2023

31 October 2023

Project and Science News

October 31st is Dark Matter Day, a globally recognized day to celebrate dark matter research and discovery. In case you missed it, Rubin recently published this science release about Rubin’s forthcoming contribution to the study of dark matter and dark energy.

Plans are underway for the Rubin Observatory presence at the American Astronomical Society meeting (AAS243) in New Orleans, January 7-11, 2024. Rubin will host a mid-day Town Hall on Thursday, January 11th, and staff an exhibit booth throughout the meeting. If you’ll be attending the meeting, stop by the booth for a chance to win some limited-edition swag!

We’re excited to learn that Vera C. Rubin is one of five notable American women who will be featured in the 2025 American Women Quarters™ Program. Quarters honoring these women will be manufactured by the Mint facilities at Philadelphia and Denver and circulated in 2025. Read more about all five of the most recent honorees on the US Mint website, and learn the details about when and why Rubin Observatory was named in her honor on rubinobservatory.org.

The Rubin Glossary & Acronyms page, a valuable resource for both newcomers and longtime Rubin community members, now includes Spanish translations (individual term translations are listed below the English terms). Special thanks to Andrés Alejandro Plazas Malagón for coordinating this project.

At SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the LSST Camera has been turned on and has just begun its last period of Operation and Verification Testing at SLAC. The Camera team expects to conduct about seven weeks of operation before turning the camera off and preparing it for shipment to Chile.

A group from the Institute for Data Intensive Research in Astrophysics and Cosmology (DIRAC) toured the Rubin summit site on October 23rd, photos from their visit are available in the Gallery.

Reminder for Rubin community members: Please make sure your information in the Contacts Database (requires LSST credentials) is updated. To submit changes, please use this form. If you have questions, send an email to communications-team@lists.lsst.org

Rubin in the Media

A detailed story about the science coming with Rubin Observatory was published in Salon on October 22nd. Read “Like Google for the sky: Vera C. Rubin Observatory will map the universe with more detail than ever,” on Salon.com.

Rubin’s LSST Camera was recently featured in an episode of Twig Science Reporter, a free weekly science news service for K–8 classrooms in the US and UK. The episode can be found at this link (the LSSTCam segment begins at ~2:50)

Operations Updates

A new version, v5.0, of RTN-011, “Rubin Observatory Plans for an Early Science Program,” has been issued and is available on community.lsst.org. V5.0 includes updates to the timeline for Early Science following the construction project’s schedule workshop in October 2023.

Reminder: There will be an Accessibility Hackathon for Notebooks on Friday, November 10th from 9-11am PST. The Rubin Community Science team invites everyone who uses Jupyter Notebooks to attend this special virtual seminar. The first hour will be a presentation by Jenn Kotler (MAST STScI; Notebooks for All) on how to make notebooks more accessible to scientists with visual impairments. The second hour will feature breakout rooms where attendees can get assistance in implementing these techniques in their own notebooks. Get Zoom connection info at ls.st/dp0-events.

Personnel Announcements & Opportunities

Rubin Observatory welcomes Alan Strauss as Head of Education and Public Outreach (EPO), based in Tucson, AZ, starting October 23rd, 2023. As Head of Rubin EPO, Alan will offer guidance and a visionary outlook for the EPO program, strengthen collaborations between EPO and other internal and external groups, and manage the day-to-day activities of the EPO team.

Ken Kobayashi has assumed support of Rubin Observatory as a Financial Analyst in SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory’s Fundamental Physics Directorate. Jackie Chin will be providing backup support.

The Data Management team has posted a new position for a Senior DevOps/Data Services Engineer. More information about this and other positions 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-profit online store.

Upcoming Meetings with Rubin Observatory Involvement

(those with an asterisk* are supported by LSST Discovery Alliance):

2023

2024