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20 December 2024: Project and Science News Rubin has had a busy and eventful year, and 2024 is drawing to a close. We wish everyone a safe and restful holiday to prepare for next year, and for the approaching finish line of Rubin Construction. We hope you enjoy Rubin’s 2024 holiday card. We hope to see many of you at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) winter meeting (AAS 245) in National Harbor, MD on January 12-16. The Rubin Town Hall is scheduled for Tuesday, January 14th. Rubin will also be presenting a panel for media and science writers during the meeting, please check the AAS schedule for the date and time. And don’t forget to stop by Rubin’s exhibit booth (#105A in the NSF Pavilion)! Rubin leadership and staff joined representatives from NOIRLab, AURA, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science for …

27 November 2024: Project and Science News Project reminder: November 28-29 are Thanksgiving US holidays for Rubin with US staff likely unavailable/offline. The Commissioning team continues to share technical updates on the progress of on-sky commissioning activities using the Commissioning Camera (ComCam) on the Rubin Community Forum and the #commissioning-updates Slack channel. Highlights curated for a non-technical audience will also be posted on Rubin’s social media accounts. Rubin staff provided several impactful activities at the recent annual meeting of La Sociedad Chilena de Astronomía (SOCHIAS), held November 11-15 in Arica, Chile’s northernmost city. Education and Public Outreach team members Fernanda Urrutia and Ardis Herrold led a teacher training session on Rubin’s “Coloreando el Universo” investigation, which was attended by a roomful of enthusiastic educators. Holger Drass, Verification Systems Engineer for Rubin, gave a talk about Rubin and supported outreach efforts at the AURA-O exhibit booth. The Chilean scientific community continues to show a …

6 November 2024: Project and Science News Rubin achieved a historic milestone on October 24th, 2024, when the summit team captured the first on-sky data with Rubin’s Commissioning Camera and transferred it from Chile to the US Data Facility at SLAC. This successful end-to-end engineering test is the product of decades of dedication and innovation by Rubin Project members and the community. Read the details in Rubin’s public announcement on rubinobservatory.org. Additional visuals are available in the Gallery. During the periods of on-sky commissioning using the Commissioning Camera (ComCam) and LSST Camera (LSSTCam), Rubin Observatory plans to share brief technical updates on the progress of on-sky commissioning activities with the Rubin science community on a roughly weekly cadence. These posts will complement existing communications products. Posts will appear on the LSST Community forum in the News category with the commissioning-updates tag and on the LSSTC Slack workspace in the new #commissioning-updates channel. Rubin …

16 October 2024: Project and Science News Rubin officially has a complete telescope on Cerro Pachón after the Primary/Tertiary Mirror (M1M3) Cell Assembly was installed by the summit team last week. With the Secondary Mirror (M2) and the 144-megapixel Commissioning Camera in place on the telescope mount, it won’t be long before Rubin takes its first on-sky observations. Read the details about this major achievement on rubinobservatory.org. Shortly after the M1M3 installation, Rubin announced the naming of its state-of-the-art telescope as the Simonyi Survey Telescope. This celebratory event at the Rubin Observatory Summit Facility on Cerro Pachón in Chile was attended by the Simonyi family, Rubin Observatory leadership, representatives of NSF and DOE, and other guests. Read more about it in this press release issued on October 11th. Preparing for the M1M3 installation took many months of integration and weeks of intense preparation, including load testing for the critical transport to level 8 …

3 October 2024: Project and Science News The seventh in a series of Rubin science releases showcasing Rubin’s upcoming contributions to various areas of astronomy and astrophysics is now available. Read (in English or Spanish) and share “Rubin Observatory’s Unparalleled Vision Will Revolutionize Multi-Messenger Astronomy,” on rubinobservatory.org A successful LSST@Europe6 meeting took place on the island of La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain, from September 16-20. A notable number of early-career scientists participated in the meeting, a good indicator that Rubin is generating excitement and will have a tremendous impact on the next decade of scientific research. A particular focus of discussions was on synergies between Rubin and other projects such as ESA’s Euclid, as well as with In-kind contribution teams based in Europe and globally. A group photo from the meeting is available in the Gallery. Rubin Observatory has updated the statement regarding increased deployment of satellite constellations at this link. In early …

11 September 2024: Project and Science News Daylight Saving Time started in Chile on September 8th, so Chile is now four hours ahead of official Project time (PST). Be aware that meeting times may change — organizers can help confirm start times. The Summit team re-installed the Rubin Commissioning Camera (ComCam) on the telescope on August 23rd. ComCam has previously been on the telescope, but was removed before the installation of the secondary mirror (M2) in late July. ComCam — a smaller (144 megapixel), simpler version of the full 3200-megapixel LSST Camera — is being used for testing and commissioning activities prior to installation of the LSST Camera, anticipated to happen late this year. In the coming weeks the summit team will install the primary/tertiary (M1M3) mirror cell with its coated glass mirror, enabling ComCam to produce the first astronomical data from the Simonyi Survey Telescope. Watch a video of the installation on …

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 …

7 August 2024: Project & Science News The Rubin Community Workshop (Rubin 2024) took place July 22-26 at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, CA and was a big success. This year’s meeting was fully hybrid, with about 200 people attending in person and an additional ~250 participating in virtual sessions. Read a summary of the meeting at this link. The group photo is available for download here. The summit team achieved a major milestone on July 24th with the installation of the glass secondary mirror assembly on the telescope mount. This marks the successful integration of the first permanent component of the telescope’s optical system. The Rubin team issued a press release to announce the event. The first Data Management (DM) Standards Review was held at SLAC on July 29-30. The review committee commended the Rubin DM team on their strategy and approach to meeting requirements, and initiated productive discussions with …

23 July 2024: Project & Science News The Rubin Community Workshop at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is underway this week in Menlo Park, CA, with approximately 240 Rubin staff, affiliates, and members of the Rubin science community attending in person. More than 250 additional people are participating virtually in this fully hybrid meeting. Announcements and reports from the meeting will be included in the next Digest. The sixth in a series of Rubin science releases showcasing Rubin’s upcoming contributions to astronomy and astrophysics is now available. Read (in English or Spanish) and share “Rubin Observatory Will Detect Thousands of Elusive Brown Dwarfs, Unlocking Milky Way Mysteries,” at rubinobservatory.org. We are saddened to inform you that our Rubin colleague and cheerful friend, Darko Jevremovic from the Belgrade Observatory, passed away unexpectedly on July 11th, 2024 at the age of 56. Darko led a group of Serbian astronomers to join the Project as early as …

5 July 2024: Project and Science News In-person registration has closed for the Rubin Community Workshop at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, CA on July 22-26, with more than 200 people signed up. Registration for virtual participation is still available on the meeting website, as well as a detailed meeting agenda. The first LSST@LATAM meeting, sponsored by the University of La Serena, was held June 10-14. The meeting brought together approximately 100 Rubin staff, researchers and students from across Latin America in-person, as well as additional attendees online. Participants were provided updates on Rubin construction and operations; learned about the Rubin EPO program and Citizen Science opportunities; heard from each of the Rubin Science collaborations; and enjoyed several contributed talks. Additionally, attendees were treated to a day-long visit to Rubin Observatory. Despite an earthquake, and a significant rain event that resulted in the University closing and the conference going virtual, the …

12 June 2024: Project and Science News Registration for the Rubin Community Workshop at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, CA on July 22-26 is still open (until June 21 or when in-person capacity is reached). Posters are also being accepted until June 14th, details about all aspects of the meeting can be found on the meeting website. Rubin is celebrating Pride Month in June! Watch the #inclusion channel on Rubin Slack for LGBTQIA+ opportunities and events offered to the Rubin Community, and follow Rubin social media accounts to engage with upcoming Pride posts. On the summit, the Rubin Commissioning Camera (ComCam) was removed from the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) during the last week of May and moved to the maintenance floor on the third level of the Observatory. All utilities except Dynalene cooling have now been reconnected and the computers used to operate ComCam and the attached refrigeration Pathfinder unit have …

29 May 2024: Project and Science News The LSST Camera arrived at the Rubin summit facility May 16th after shipping from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The camera traveled by air-ride equipped transport vehicle from SLAC to San Francisco International Airport, where it was loaded on a 747 cargo plane for the flight to Santiago, Chile. Another transport vehicle drove the camera to the base of Cerro Pachón after the plane landed early the morning of May 15th, with the final careful drive up to the summit taking place the next day. Details, images, and video are available in this press release. Congratulations to the LSST Camera team and the many other individuals who contributed to this outstanding achievement! The block agenda for the Rubin Community Workshop to be held at SLAC on July 22-26 is now available on the meeting website. Register soon and secure your spot with payment before the cap on …

14 May 2024: Project and Science News Rubin’s 8.4-meter Primary/Tertiary Mirror (M1M3) was successfully coated with protected silver on April 27th, a major milestone for the Project that Rubin announced with a press release including images and timelapse video, and an impactful social media campaign. Read the details about the coating team’s achievement on rubinobservatory.org, and see a fun group photo with the coated mirror in the Gallery. Reminder to register for the Rubin Community Workshop at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, CA on July 22-26. Payment is required to secure your spot, and in-person registration will be capped at 250 in-person attendees. The room block at the SLAC guest house expires on May 13th — if you’re unable to secure a room there, information about alternate lodging is on the meeting website. The LSST Camera team at SLAC have been busy preparing to ship the LSST Camera, and all support …

23 April 2024: Project and Science News Don’t forget to register for the Rubin Community Workshop at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, CA on July 22-26. Payment is required to secure your spot, and in-person registration will be capped at 250 in-person attendees. The SLAC guest house is also filling up fast, so consider booking your lodging soon as well (link available after payment). Details and the registration link are on the meeting website. The fifth in a series of Rubin science releases showcasing Rubin’s upcoming contributions to various areas of astronomy and astrophysics is now available. Read (in English or Spanish) and share “Rubin Observatory Will Reveal Dark Matter’s Ghostly Disruptions of Stellar Streams” at rubinobservatory.org. In the first week of April, groups from across the Rubin Project took part in an operations rehearsal, taking both real (from the AuxTel) and synthetic (imSim simulations read out from the ComCam DAQ) …

4 April 2024: Project and Science News Reminder: On April 7th, Daylight Saving Time will end in Chile and clocks will fall one hour back. After two decades of work, the 3200-megapixel LSST Camera has officially been completed at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, CA. This huge Rubin milestone was announced with a press release issued by SLAC on April 3rd. Congratulations to the Camera team and the many others who contributed to this achievement. The second LSST Camera explainer video in SLAC’s series was shared via social media in mid-March and is available on YouTube. The video features Travis Lange, Deputy Project Manager & Camera Integration Manager for the LSST Camera. On the summit, the glass blank for Rubin’s 8.4-meter primary/tertiary mirror (M1M3) was moved onto the mirror cell — the mirror’s steel support structure — for the first time on March 20th (photos here). A team from the Richard …

20 March 2024: Project and Science News On March 7th, Rubin’s 8.4-meter Primary/Tertiary Mirror (M1M3) was moved from a storage building on the summit to the maintenance floor inside the observatory for the first time. With this move, M1M3 is officially “home” inside the main observatory building, where it will remain for the rest of Construction and throughout the ten-year survey. More details, photos, and a video of the move are available in this news post. A nine-person team from the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab, where M1M3 was cast, ground, and polished, will be on-site next week to perform the next big move of the mirror onto the steel support cell. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has released a new explainer video for Rubin Observatory and the LSST Camera featuring Aaron Roodman, Deputy Director of Rubin Construction for SLAC. The video is posted on SLAC’s social media channels, including Instagram and LinkedIn. Registration …

6 March 2024: Project & Science News This year’s Rubin Community Workshop 2024 (formerly PCW) will take place July 22-26 at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, CA. All are welcome to suggest breakout session topics and to submit abstracts for contributed talks and posters (deadline April 5th), details are available on community.lsst.org. Information about registration will be circulated soon. Thanks to everyone who uploaded a photo or video clip for this year’s Rubin Day in the Life (DITL) initiative — there were 115 submissions this year. The video will be released in the coming weeks, watch in Slack for a link. March is Women’s History Month, and Rubin is hosting “social media takeover days” throughout the month. Follow Rubin’s accounts on X (Twitter), Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn for more information and to enjoy posts provided by women from the Rubin community. We’ll also share these posts on the #rubin-social-media channel on …

14 February 2024: Project & Science News The fourth in a series of Rubin science releases showcasing Rubin’s upcoming contributions to various areas of astronomy and astrophysics is now available. Read (in English or Spanish) and share “Rubin Observatory will Inspire a New Era in Space Missions without Ever Leaving the Ground,” on rubinobservatory.org. Following the removal of the Primary/Tertiary (M1M3) mirror cell from the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) in mid-January, its mass surrogate was re-installed on the TMA to enable dynamic testing towards final verification and closeout of the contract with the Spanish consortium UTE. Meanwhile, the M1M3 cell is now on the maintenance floor of the summit facility where the internal actuator supports and other hardware are being removed in preparation for a final test of the process to coat the mirror. The M1M3 surrogate mirror was washed last week (photo) to prepare for placing it under vacuum in the coating …

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 …

19 December 2023: Project and Science News The end of 2023 is nearly upon us, another year has flown by with significant progress towards our goal to complete Rubin Observatory and launch the Legacy Survey of Space and Time! We wish you happy holidays and we hope you enjoy Rubin’s 2023 holiday card. Save the date: The Rubin Community Workshop is being planned for the week of July 22-26, 2024 at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. This meeting will have an emphasis on Rubin LSST science and the needs of the community, which is a shift in focus compared to the Project and Community Workshops (PCWs) of the previous years, though there will still be project updates and opportunities to interact with project staff. More information will be distributed soon. Members of the Rubin team are preparing for the American Astronomical Society (AAS) winter meeting (AAS#243) in New Orleans on January 7-11. The Rubin …