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5 December 2023: Project and Science News The third Rubin science release, “Rubin Observatory Will Unlock Fossil Record of Galaxy Cluster Evolution,” is now available onrubinobservatory.org. Please share this story with your networks to help generate excitement about Rubin science. A meeting of the AURA Management Council for Rubin Observatory (AMCR) took place in La Serena, Chile, on November 29th - December 1st. In addition to construction progress updates and a discussion about developing First Light celebration plans, the Council enjoyed a tour of the Rubin summit facility. The last time this group toured the site was in September 2019, so there was lots of progress to show. Photos from the summit tour are available in the Gallery. Rubin Observatory hosted a summit visit from Bernadette M. Meehan, US Ambassador to the Republic of Chile, on December 1. After Ambassador Meehan toured the observatory and spoke with members of the Rubin team, she …

15 November 2023: Project and Science News November is Native American Heritage Month, and LGBTQ + STEM day is coming up on November 18th. Rubin celebrates the contributions of all our diverse staff and community members! Contact our Workplace Culture Advocate team if you’d like assistance connecting with resources and allies in the Rubin community, or if you have suggestions for how to make Rubin more inclusive. On the summit, the Rubin Commissioning Camera (ComCam) was reinstalled on the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) on November 3rd, using the newly-repaired dome crane ComCam had been removed in early August to allow the installation of the M2 cell and surrogate mirror and some additional electronics packaging upgrades for better in-situ maintenance. The recent re-installation (photos here) went about twice as quickly as the initial task, now that the team has its procedures well-established, and they worked extremely well together to achieve a precise and safe …

31 October 2023: Project and Science News October 31st is Dark Matter Day, a globally recognized day to celebrate dark matter research and discovery. In case you missed it, Rubin recently published this science release about Rubin’s forthcoming contribution to the study of dark matter and dark energy. Plans are underway for the Rubin Observatory presence at the American Astronomical Society meeting (AAS243) in New Orleans, January 7-11, 2024. Rubin will host a mid-day Town Hall on Thursday, January 11th, and staff an exhibit booth throughout the meeting. If you’ll be attending the meeting, stop by the booth for a chance to win some limited-edition swag! We’re excited to learn that Vera C. Rubin is one of five notable American women who will be featured in the 2025 American Women Quarters™ Program. Quarters honoring these women will be manufactured by the Mint facilities at Philadelphia and Denver and circulated in 2025. Read more …

17 October 2023: Project and Science News Rubin Construction management staff gathered for a workshop on October 4th to discuss the schedule impact of recent challenges concerning the Camera and the integration of components on the summit. A detailed announcement from Project leadership is available on community.lsst.org, and an updated version of RTN-011 – Early Science will be issued shortly. The second Rubin science release, “Rubin Observatory will Help Unravel Mysteries of Dark Matter & Dark Energy,” is now available on rubinobservatory.org. We encourage you to share this story with your networks to help us generate excitement about Rubin science. The summit team continues to stay busy and productive while the overhead dome crane, which failed in September, is being repaired. Recent activities include installing the rack-and-pinion permanent dome rotation system, fixing oil leaks and improving the pipe fittings for the TMA azimuth braking system, and completing a straightforward but time-consuming repair project …

26 September 2023: Project and Science News September has been a busy month for VIP visits to the summit. Rubin Construction and Operations leadership hosted a group from the National Science Foundation (NSF) on September 13-14 (photo here). The previous week, the Mayor of Vicuña toured the summit site along with VIP attendees of the first World Astro-tourism Summit (held September 6-9 in Vicuña). Several more groups are scheduled to visit the observatory in October. The Rubin Auxiliary Telescope (AuxTel) was recently outfitted with several new hardware components, which the AuxTel team has been testing in observing runs. One component is a mask for spectroscopy, which helps limit sky background and the impact of field stars in the spectrum, making analysis easier and more precise. Another addition is a specific device for flat-fielding for spectroscopy, and a third is a new hologram which is almost identical to the one currently in use — …

7 September 2023: Project and Science News This year’s NSF/DOE Joint Status Review (JSR) for Rubin Construction took place August 22-25 in Tucson, AZ. Rubin leadership and team leads gave presentations summarizing current and remaining work on various aspects of Rubin, and participated in detailed discussions with review committee members in subsequent breakout sessions. The official report containing the review committee’s recommendations will be delivered to Rubin leadership in the coming weeks. A photo from the review is available in the Gallery. The Survey Scheduling Team announces the release of a new OpSim output, “baseline_v3.2_10yrs.db,” which illustrates the baseline v3.2 survey strategy for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The v3.2 survey strategy is an evolution of the v3.0 survey strategy recommendations from the Survey Cadence Optimization Committee (SCOC). Learn more on community.lsst.org. Major integrations on the summit continued with the installation of the secondary mirror (M2) cell and surrogate mirror …

23 August 2023: Project and Science News The Rubin 2023 Operations-hosted Project and Community Workshop (PCW) brought colleagues and community together from August 7-11. More than 300 people attended the meeting in person at the University Marriott in Tucson, Arizona, and an additional 160 people registered to participate virtually in plenaries and select breakout sessions. This year’s PCW was the first to be facilitated by the Rubin Operations team after many years of annual meetings organized by Rubin Construction. Read more details about the meeting in a recent news post, and see a group photo in the Gallery. On August 10th, Rubin Observatory published the first in a series of press releases highlighting different areas of Rubin science. The overall goal for these monthly releases is to familiarize a broad, public audience with Rubin science leading up to first light and the start of science operations. Read “Visitors from Distant Stars: Rubin Observatory …

25 July 2023: Project and Science News We look forward to seeing many of you very soon, at the Rubin Project and Community Workshop 2023 (PCW) in Tucson, AZ, August 7-11. Virtual registration and poster submission are both still open — you can find the most up-to-date information on the meeting website (Login Required). A winter storm hit Cerro Pachón late Tuesday, July 11th, blanketing Rubin Observatory and the surrounding area with about eight inches (20 cm) of snow (photo). The road leading to the summit was closed for just one day (Wednesday July 12th), and the safety team used the time resourcefully to conduct a winter driving safety training class for Rubin Observers and nighttime support staff. A new 4K timelapse video of the evening sky over Rubin is available in the Gallery, with footage provided by Rodolfo Canestrari, a member of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) In-kind contributing team. …

12 July 2023: Project & Science News The agenda for the Rubin Operations Project and Community Workshop 2023 (PCW) is now available on the meeting website (Login Required). The PCW is scheduled for the week of August 7, 2023, at the Marriott University Park in Tucson, AZ. The Rubin Science Advisory Committee (SAC) is soliciting nominations (including self-nominations) for new members. Nominations from international partners, including the French and UK communities, are especially encouraged. SAC membership is for a term of two years, with the possibility of renewal. More information and a link to the nomination form can be found on community.lsst.org. The SAC extends thanks to members who are finishing their terms. Rachel Bean, David Kirkby, Meg Schwamb, Stephen Smartt, Lucianne Walkowicz, and Risa Wechsler have all contributed enormously to the activities of the SAC, strengthening Rubin Observatory in many ways. The Rubin Data Management (DM) team has succeeded in enabling default …

21 June 2023: Project & Science News In-person registration for the Rubin Operations Project and Community Workshop 2023 (PCW) has reached capacity (300), but if you haven’t registered and want to attend please add your name to the waitlist—we anticipate some cancellations and we’ll admit those on the list as spaces become available. Some sessions will also be available virtually. The meeting will take place at theMarriott University Park in Tucson, AZ the week of August 7, 2023. For more information, visit the meeting website. Power on the summit is back on after a planned shutdown earlier this month, and regular activities have resumed after a short ramp-up period. The main reason for the shutdown was to safely connect a newly-installed 1.1-megawatt generator and its automatic transfer switch. This generator is a robust and powerful piece of equipment that will provide more reliable, stable power on the summit. The summit team took advantage …

31 May 2023: Project & Science News Registration is open for the Rubin Operations Project and Community Workshop 2023 (PCW). The in-person meeting will take place at the Marriott University Park in Tucson, AZ the week of August 7, 2023, with some sessions available online. Please note: in-person participation is limited to 300 attendees so please register ASAP. Registration will close on July 14th or earlier if we reach capacity. For more information and a registration link, visit the meeting website. Registration is open for LSST@Europe5: Towards LSST science, together! The meeting will be held in Poreč, Croatia, September 25–29, and will be conducted in hybrid format to enable access for remote participants and to a wider community. Please see the meeting website for details and a link to register. Rubin is gearing up to recognize Pride Month in June! Watch for a LGBTQIA+ focused TED talk discussion (these happen on the 2nd …

18 April 2023: Project & Science News The Rubin Operations Project and Community Workshop 2023 (PCW) will take place at the Marriott University Park in Tucson, AZ the week of August 7, 2023. The meeting website is now live and we are accepting session proposals (Login required) through May 19th (requires Rubin credentials or creation of an account). You can also indicate interest in childcare grants using this form (deadline April 28th). Following a Construction/Commissioning Schedule workshop held on April 6th, the updated Project completion date has been adjusted to February 2025, with System First Light forecast for October 2024. The completion date is a forecast from the detailed project plan to completion that will be updated as we progress through the challenging but rewarding next steps of system integration and test. The forecast date does not include the expected schedule contingency we will build into the plan forward as we work with …

5 April 2023: Project & Science News Planning is in full swing for the Rubin Operations Project and Community Workshop 2023 (PCW) which will take place at theMarriott University Park in Tucson, AZ the week of August 7, 2023. Visit the meeting website to submit session proposals, which are due May 19th (requires Rubin credentials or creation of an account). NEW THIS YEAR: Everyone is welcome to submit a request by June 16th (Login required) to contribute a talk or poster in-person at the PCW (also requires Rubin credentials or account creation), and students are especially encouraged. More information is available on community.lsst.org. The summit team has done some heavy lifting on Cerro Pachón in the last couple of weeks, swapping out the components installed on the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA). First, they removed the mass surrogate for the M1M3 mirror assembly (a yellow cross-shaped structure that approximates the mass of the glass …

4 April 2023: Project & Science News April is Celebrate Diversity Month, and at Rubin Observatory we celebrate diversity year-round. When people with different perspectives and backgrounds come together, the result is better conversations, better questions, and better science. Did you know that Rubin has a Workplace Culture Advocate Program, and its mission is to promote inclusive, respectful, and fruitful collaboration between all our Rubin project personnel? Find out more about this program on the Rubin website. Members of the Data Management, SIT-COM, Telescope & Site, and Camera teams gathered in La Serena, Chile, on March 14-17 for a Joint Subsystem Meeting. The meeting was a chance for intensive collaboration and planning between the teams as interfaces between Rubin hardware and software systems continue to increase during commissioning. Data Management staff toured the summit site, many for the first time, to better understand Rubin Observatory’s hardware components and to experience the intensity and …

15 March 2023: Project & Science News This year’s Rubin Project and Community Workshop (PCW), the first PCW facilitated by the Rubin Operations team, will take place the week of August 7-11, 2023, at the Marriott University Park in Tucson, AZ. We hope to make some sessions (plenaries and general-interest sessions) virtually accessible for those who cannot attend in person. This year we will be accepting applications to request childcare funding, made possible by the LSST Corporation and the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, and generously sponsored by the Heising-Simons Foundation. Further details about the meeting and childcare funding will be available once the meeting website is live and registration opens. Over the last few months, the observing team on the summit has been exercising the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) extensively and has taken thousands of images with two StarTracker cameras, mounted on the outside of the top ring of the TMA. These images are …

7 March 2023: Project & Science News Remember to mark your calendars for the Rubin Observatory Project and Community Workshop, scheduled for August 7-11, 2023 in Tucson, AZ. More information will be available soon. On February 17th, Rubin Construction and NOIRLab partnered to host a celebration of random acts of kindness. For a few weeks leading up to the event, Rubin staff and project members were encouraged to contribute to paper "kindness chains" at Rubin and NOIRLab’s physical locations, adding links to recognize co-workers for acts of kindness. On the 17th, colleagues connected in person and online for a celebration of kindness, which included inspirational words and stories from members of Rubin and NOIRLab staff, and a prize raffle. A collage of event photos is available in the Gallery. The summit team recently conducted a “cart and rails” testing campaign at the summit facility. The cart used in the tests is the transport …

7 February 2023: Project & Science News Save the date for the Rubin Observatory Project and Community Workshop! Rubin 2023 (also known as the PCW), is scheduled for August 7-11, 2023 in Tucson, AZ. We’ll share more information when it’s available. February is Black History Month, and we invite you to follow our social media channels for a campaign highlighting notable Black astronomers and astrophysicists. Watch for new posts all month long on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Random Acts of Kindness Day is coming up on February 17th! Leading up to that day, you can visit any NOIRLab site location to add links to a kindness chain, or post messages that recognize and celebrate our colleagues on the #rubin-be-kind Slack channel. Registration is now open for the Steve Kahn Symposium on March 3rd at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The day-long event will celebrate Steve Kahn’s career at SLAC and his leadership in the …

25 January 2023: Project & Science News Rubin Observatory was highly visible at the winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS241) in Seattle WA on January 8-12. In addition to numerous presentations and posters highlighting Rubin/LSST science, Rubin staff hosted a booth in the exhibit hall and a well-attended evening Town Hall at the meeting. More information and a link to event photos can be found in this recent news post. We invite you to admire the near-complete status of the Rubin Observatory dome cladding in a recent drone video. The outside of the dome now has weatherproof aluminum cladding covering all wall and roof surfaces as well as most of the operable louver panels. Inside the dome, the mechanisms and drive control for the large aperture shutters are being finished. The shutters, rear-access door, overhead cranes, lights and all other mechanized electrified elements on the rotating structure will soon be outfitted …

13 December 2022: Project & Science News A holiday message from the Rubin Construction and Rubin Operations leadership teams: It has been a challenging and productive year for the Rubin Observatory team. We are thankful for having the opportunity to work on such an exciting project and to have such a dedicated and capable team moving us ahead toward one of the world’s most amazing observatories and this unique survey. We have especially enjoyed the interaction with our science community through multiple large meetings and numerous committee/collaboration meetings. We want to thank you, our community, for all your effort and support as we have emerged from the pandemic and make progress toward the finish. Looking to the new year, we will continue to keep you informed as plans are updated and we look forward to our continued interaction and your support. We invite you to view this year’s Rubin Observatory holiday card on …

23 November 2022: Project & Science News On Cerro Pachón, the Commissioning team recently took preliminary data with the Star Tracker, which was installed on the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) in early November. During this engineering campaign, they achieved focus and a rough alignment characterization of both Star Tracker cameras. Next, they plan to add dome movement and TMA tracking along with further characterization tests like adjusting exposure levels to optimize the observing strategy. Once the TMA software testing is complete, the team will use this system to verify a number of scientific performance requirements of the TMA. Industrial Scaffolding and Work at Height Supervisor courses were held on the summit last week, facilitated by the INDAN Scaffolding Institute, a competence and certifying body. Both courses were passed by all seven participants, with marks above the minimum percentage required. The theoretical and practical content lasted 32 hours, completing four days of training. A …