Rubin Digest 20 August 2024

23 August 2024

Project and Science News

Rubin is planning to host media visits to the summit facility on Cerro Pachón during a two-month period starting in early 2025. Members of the media wishing to visit the observatory are encouraged to submit this media visit interest form to assist with our planning. This FAQ page is a helpful resource, additional questions should be directed to communications-team@lists.lsst.org

The Rubin Communications Team has recently seen an increase in media requests, which will continue to build as we get closer to releasing the first Rubin images with a big media splash in 2025. If you’re interested in joining a pool of enthusiastic, media-trained individuals (both Rubin staff and worldwide science community members) that we can connect with reporters/journalists for interviews please fill out the Rubin media contact volunteer form. We also plan to offer opportunities for basic media training including talking points and key messages, interview referrals will only be made after completion of the training.

The Rubin site on Cerro Pachón weathered a significant winter storm early in August, with heavy snowfall and high winds (124 kph/77 mph). According to Eduardo Serrano, Rubin Observatory Site Manager, this was only the second time in 28 years that winds have exceeded 100 kph (62 mph) on Cerro Pachón. Despite these conditions, the main observatory building sustained only a few incidents of minor exterior damage, and some nearby support buildings lost sections of siding and roofing. No one was injured in the storm, and work on the summit resumed as normal once the roads were cleared and a thorough inspection was conducted.

The Data Management team released Version 27.0.0 of the LSST Science Pipelines in early August. More information and links to documentation are available on community.lsst.org.

Rubin Staff awards and AURA awards were presented at a Rubin All-Hands Meeting held virtually in early August. Congratulations to Freddy Munoz and Margaux Lopez, winners of this quarter’s Rubin Staff awards. Individual winners of AURA awards were Oscar Nunez (Service Award), Petr Kubanek (Technology Award), Carol Chirino (DEI Award), and Tomislav Vucina (Science Award). The AURA Team Award went to the Summit Electrical Team: Juan Fabrega, Luis Vergara, Roberto Olivares, Claudio Pasten, Jose Miguel Quintero, and Edgard Sepulveda. Congratulations to all of this year’s AURA award winners for their exceptional contributions. 

Rubin in the Media

“Dr. Becky” Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford and a popular YouTube content creator, recently posted a video explaining how Rubin Observatory is “The Most Ambitious Astronomy Project EVER.”

On August 7th, The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) published a comprehensive story, NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory will capture the unseen cosmos,” which features quotes from several Rubin representatives.

BBC Sky at Night Magazine published, “The biggest camera in the world is part of a new observatory set to study the mysterious dark universe,” on August 13th. 

Operations Updates

Rubin Observatory was well-represented at the International Astronomical Union’s General Assembly (IAU GA) in Cape Town, South Africa, August 6-15. Rubin staff hosted a booth in the exhibit hall supported by the Community Science and In-Kind Program teams, and there were a number of talks given by various members of the Rubin community. Africa-based meeting attendees expressed interest and enthusiasm for getting involved with Rubin and the LSST. 

Also at the IAU GA, members of the South African Rubin community and representatives from Rubin Observatory convened on August 13th for a full-day side meeting. The meeting, organized by Patricia Whitelock, program manager of the South African In-Kind Program, brought together South African PIs and JAs who are Rubin data rights holders with members of the Rubin staff including the Community Science and In-kind Coordination teams. Christina Williams and Gloria Fonseca Alvarez successfully led interactive sessions on using several aspects of the Rubin Science Platform throughout the day. Additionally, several Rubin staff were on hand to converse with the South African participants about the in-kind program and other Rubin-related topics.

We encourage applications for the position of project manager for The Canadian Data Intensive Astrophysics PLatform (CanDIAPL, pronounced “candy apple”), a data center and cloud-computing facility that will host Rubin data and data at other wavelengths, including precursor surveys to the Square Kilometer Array. More information is available in this job post.

Personnel Announcements & Opportunities:

Igor Suarez-Sola joined the Telescope & Site team on August 1st as Software Engineer. Igor is a Data Lab team member at NOIRLab who will be supporting Rubin’s Commissioning effort by working on Service Abstraction Layer (SAL) Scripting.

Visit the Rubin hiring page to see all open positions with Rubin. 

Info for Project Members:

Nominate someone deserving for a future staff award 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. 

The link to Rubin’s anonymous “suggestion box” will be changing soon, until a new link is announced please contact our Workplace Culture Advocates (login required) with your suggestions. 

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

September 16-20	LSST@Europe6, La Palma, Spain*
September 25-27	LSST Solar System Readiness Sprint, Oxford, UK*
November 6-8	AURA Management Council for Rubin Observatory (AMCR) Meeting, La Serena, Chile
November 10-14	Astronomical Data Analysis Software & Systems (ADASS), Malta
November 11-15	XIX Chilean Astronomical Society (SOCHIAS) Annual Meeting, Arica, Chile

2025

January 12-16

American Astronomical Society (AAS 247) Winter Meeting, National Harbor, MD