Rubin Digest 24 January 2024

25 January 2024

Project & Science News

Rubin Observatory leadership and team members joined more than 3000 scientists, students, and astronomy enthusiasts at the American Astronomical Society Winter Meeting (AAS#243) January 7-11 in New Orleans, LA. During the meeting, Rubin hosted an exhibit booth, a well-attended session on Early Science with LSST, and a Town Hall (the slides from the science session and the Town Hall are available on Zenodo). Read more about the meeting in this news post, and view photos in the Gallery. 

The Survey Cadence Optimization Committee (SCOC) announces “Rubin ToO 2024: Envisioning the Vera C. Rubin Observatory LSST Target of Opportunity program,” a workshop that will take place in Berkeley, CA and online on March 18-20. More information and a link to register are available on the meeting website.  

On Cerro Pachón last week, the summit team removed the Primary/Tertiary Mirror (M1M3) cell and surrogate mirror from the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) on the 8th floor of the Observatory. The cell assembly was then transported to the 3rd-level maintenance and integration hall. Throughout the process, team members worked safely and efficiently together and all the transport equipment—which includes a custom transport cart, rail system, and the vertical platform lift—operated smoothly. The team is now focused on removing ancillary cabinets and equipment from the cell in preparation for a final test of the coating plant which will require the cell to be under vacuum pressure for up to five days. Photos of the M1M3 cell and surrogate mirror’s successful removal and transport are available in the Gallery. 

The LSST Camera team at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory recently coordinated new group photos and pics of the camera in the clean room, you can view these in the Gallery. SLAC also published a profile of Camera team member Margaux Lopez in Symmetry on January 18th.

Rubin in the Media:

Rubin Observatory and the LSST Camera were featured in a recent online National Geographic article titled, “Is there a 9th planet out there? We may soon find out,” published on January 9th.  

A January 9th article in the New York Times, “How Astronomers Are Saving Astronomy From Satellites—For Now,” (requires NYT login) features an interview about the impact of satellite constellations with Rubin Data Management team member Meredith Rawls.

LSST Discovery Alliance News:

LSST-DA announces the call for proposals (deadline February 15th, 2024) for the fourth cohort of the LINCC Frameworks Incubator program. The LINCC Frameworks team is working to provide robust open-source software tools to support analysis of LSST data at scale, and a key part of this effort is the formation of collaborations with the LSST science community. The fourth cohort of the Incubator program will provide dedicated funding and collaborations with software engineers to proposal teams who pitch compelling projects to be carried out in collaboration with the LINCC Frameworks team. More information and the link to submit proposals can be found on the LSST-DA website.

Operations Updates: 

Rubin Observatory seeks members of the science community to serve on the Rubin Users Committee (UC). Nominations are due February 29th, 2024, and self-nominations are encouraged. The Rubin UC has been in place since early 2022 and is the formal interface for feedback from the science community regarding the quality and efficacy of the Rubin data products and services (e.g., the Rubin Science Platform). For instructions and further information please see the call for nominations on community.lsst.org.

Personnel Announcements & Opportunities

Luis Matamala re-joined the Rubin Summit Safety Team as Safety Assistant (after an initial temporary position) on January 2nd. In this role, Luis will support the implementation of the Rubin Safety, Occupational Health and Environmental Plan, and conduct safety inspections. 

Kelley Ervan joined the Rubin team on January 3rd as Administrative Assistant II. Kelley’s primary responsibility is to provide administrative support to the Project Management Office.

Help Rubin Observatory get across the finish line as a new member of the SIT-Com team! Three new positions are now available: SIT-Com Developer, Rubin Observatory Postdoctoral Researcher, and Rubin Observatory System Performance Postdoctoral Researcher. More information about these and other open positions with Rubin can be found on the Rubin hiring page.

Info for Project Members

Save the date: our next “Day in the Life of Rubin” (DITL) will be February 22nd! On that day, we’ll ask people across the Rubin Project to submit a photo of their work to be compiled into a montage video for our ongoing series. Past DITL videos are available in the Gallery. 

Nominate someone for Rubin’s staff awards program to recognize outstanding performance! More information and the nomination form are available on the Staff Awards page on the Project website (login required).

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): 

2024

January 22-24	“What was that? Planning ESO follow-up for transients, variables, and solar system objects in the era of LSST,” ESO Garching, Germany
January 30-February 4	NASA Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG) Meeting #30, Tucson, AZ
February 6-8	Data Management/Rubin System Performance (DM/RPF) Joint Technical Meeting, SLAC
February 26-March 1	DESC Collaboration Meeting, Virtual
March 12-14	Image Sensors for Precision Astronomy (ISPA) workshop, SLAC/KIPAC*
March 12-15	Strong Gravitational Lensing Science with LSST, Oxford, UK
March 18-20	Rubin ToO 2024, Envisioning the LSST Target of Opportunity Program, Berkeley, CA
March 26-29	NSF Research Infrastructure Workshop, Tucson, AZ
April 15-19	KAVLI-IAU (IAUS 387) Symposium, “(Toward) Discovery of Life Beyond Earth and its Impact,” Durham, UK
April 16-18	Rubin Joint Operations Review, Tucson, AZ
June 16-21	SPIE Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation Meeting, Yokohama, Japan
July 8-12	DESC Collaboration Meeting, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
July 22-26	Rubin Community Workshop (formerly PCW), SLAC Menlo Park, CA

Upcoming Deadlines:

2024

February 15	Proposals for the LINCC Frameworks Incubator Program
February 29	Nominations for new members of the Rubin Users Committee