Rubin Digest 12 November 2019

12 November 2019

Project & Science News

An update on LSST Data Rights and in-kind contributions is now available; read the details at this link. Additionally, a public draft of the LSST Data Policy has been released on Docushare. Questions and comments about the evolving policy are welcome on community.lsst.org. 

Social unrest in Chile in October had an impact on LSST construction progress, as nightly curfews and safety concerns required the adjustment of work hours and transportation to and from the summit. LSST Project Manager Victor Krabbendam, who was in Chile on a scheduled visit when civil protests began on October 18th, was able to assist with logistics so that dome work could continue on the summit when possible. Photos from his visit are available in the LSST Gallery. Because the social situation in Chile continues to be unstable, we are still monitoring events closely, communicating frequently with personnel in Chile, and planning work activities on a day-to-day basis depending on the situation.

The assembly team from vendor Asturfeito began summit work on the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) on October 28th with support from Shawn Callahan, Telescope and Site Technical Manager; Freddy Muñoz, Summit Integration Engineer; and other LSST personnel. Preparation of the top of the pier and installation of safety railings are underway, and a large-capacity exterior crane has been used to install the first TMA elements in and on the pier. 

Early integration of the LSST Camera cart, cable wrap, hexapod rotator and other top-end assemblies has begun on the third level of the summit facility. Photos are available in the LSST Gallery.

Corporation News

At the October 2019 face-to-face meeting of the LSST Corporation, new Executive Board Chair Harry Ferguson (Space Telescope Science Institute), and Executive Board Vice Chair Lucas Macri (Texas A&M University) took the reins. Joining Harry and Lucas as new Board Members are Raffaella Margutti (Northwestern University), Adriano Fontana (INAF), and Michael Wood-Vasey (University of Pittsburgh). They look forward to working on the Corporation's mission to advance understanding of the dynamic universe by enabling LSST science through research and education. The Corporation thanks former Board Chairs Suzanne Hawley and David MacFarlane, and retiring Board Members Vicky Kalogera, Connie Rockosi, and Michael Strauss, who ably led the Corporation and navigated many challenges over the past several years.

Information for Project Members

LSST Project members are encouraged to attend an all-hands meeting scheduled for Thursday, November 14th at 9:00 a.m. PST. Details on remote participation are included in the calendar invite that has been emailed to Project members.

Personnel News

Adrien Thebo joined the LSST Project in the role of IT Systems Engineer on November 1st. Adrien will be part of the IT team in Chile, helping to deploy hardware using Foreman, Puppet, and Kubernetes.

The Data Management (DM) Alert Production Group has an open position for a research engineer with experience in C++ to work on image processing pipelines at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle. Information is available on the LSST hiring webpage. 

Upcoming Meetings with LSST Involvement

(those with asterisk* are LSSTC funded):

2019

November 12-14: Data Management Boot Camp 2019, 

December 9-10: Towards Science in Chile with LSST 2019, Concepción, Chile*

2020

January 4-8: American Astronomical Society (AAS) 235th Meeting, Honolulu, HI

January 20-24: Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC) Winter Collaboration Meeting, Tucson, AZ

January 22-23: AMCL Meeting, Tucson, AZ

January 24-25: Project Science Team (PST) Meeting, Tucson, AZ

March 17-19: LSST Algorithms Workshop, Princeton, NJ