rubinann20004 — Announcement

Rubin Digest 10 March 2020

10 March 2020

Project & Science News

Double-check your clocks and your calendars—Daylight Saving Time returned to most of the US on Sunday, March 8th. Rubin Observatory uses Pacific Time as official project time, which means that many standing meeting times will change for staff in Tucson and Chile. Please check with meeting coordinators to confirm start times, especially for meetings involving staff at multiple locations.

An updated review on the impact of constellation satellites on Rubin Observatory science, including possible mitigation strategies, has been prepared by Chief Scientist Tony Tyson and Deputy Director Zeljko Ivezic, with the input of the Project Science Team and the Rubin Observatory/LSST Science Collaborations. The review is now available at this link.

The Rubin Observatory Algorithms Workshop, originally scheduled for March 17-19 in Princeton, NJ, has been modified to be an all-virtual event. This decision was made in light of travel uncertainties and risks related to the COVID-19 outbreak. The Data Management team is working hard to provide an excellent set of talks for the workshop and is confident that the virtual event will be successful.

The Rubin Observatory LSST@Europe4 meeting, originally scheduled for June 8-12 in Rome, has been postponed because of COVID-19 concerns in Italy. The meeting organizers hope to reschedule the meeting in the same location later in 2020, but will wait for the situation to stabilize before making plans.

Save the date: This year’s Rubin Observatory Project and Community Workshop (Rubin2020) will take place on August 10-14, 2020, at the Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain resort near Tucson, AZ. Additional details will be shared as they are available.

The second production shutter for the LSST Camera was completed and delivered to the camera clean room at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory last week, closing the shutter subsystem effort in the Camera project.

The Refrigeration Pathfinder, which will be installed with the Rubin Observatory Commissioning Camera (ComCam), has arrived in Chile (photo here). The Refrigeration Pathfinder is an instrument that will support early commissioning and testing of the full refrigeration system for the Rubin Observatory LSST Camera. This system is not required for ComCam but can be installed with it for parallel work. Meanwhile, at Rubin Observatory headquarters in Tucson, AZ, ComCam is being disassembled and packed for shipping to Chile.

On Cerro Pachón, the final roof purlin was installed on the Dome last week. Inside the facility, progress on the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) included the installation of the elevation trunnions, and ongoing work on the piping for the TMA oil system. The Secondary Mirror (M2) also began functional testing last week; with resulting data being collected in the Engineering Facilities Database (EFD). Photos of recent progress are available in the Gallery.

Personnel News

Petr Kubernak joined the Telescope & Site subsystem on March 2nd in the role of Senior Software Engineer. Based in Chile, Petr will be responsible for designing, building, and deploying various control systems including the Active Optics System, Telescope Control System, and the Primary/Tertiary Mirror (M1M3) System.