Advanced Announcement Search

8 May 2018: Project & Science News Registration is open for LSST 2018; register now at this link. Proposals for meeting sessions are also currently being accepted here. The deadline for submitting session topics is May 14. Several LSST subsystem staff presented status updates and recent accomplishments on May 1 at the LSST Open House for the AURA Member Representatives Meeting in Tucson, AZ. An LSST team spent 5 days in Spain last month conducting a thorough safety review of the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) at the facility of vendor Asturfeito. The group inspected the numerous safety features included in the TMA, and reviewed the procedures by which the group of vendors responsible for building the TMA (referred to as UTE) will verify that the hazard mitigations meet LSST requirements. Read more about the review in this news post. The Education and Public Outreach (EPO) subsystem held a Citizen science workshop in April …

25 April 2018: Project & Science News Save the date! The LSST 2018 Project and Community Workshop will take place the week of August 13 in Tucson, AZ. More details will be available soon. Symmetry Magazine, a joint publication of Fermilab and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, published an article about LSST on April 17 titled “The world’s largest astronomical movie,” which features detailed information and visualizations of the LSST Camera. An LSST cross-project team met at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) on April 3-4 to conduct the latest in a series of Early Integration Pathfinder Activities. This activity focused on simulated control and image collection for the nominal Auxiliary Telescope visit sequence. Read more about the activity here, and view a group photo taken at the event in the LSST Gallery. LSST’s series of spring subsystem meetings concluded last week with the Education and Public Outreach (EPO) Subsystem Meeting, held …

27 February 2018: Project & Science News An Education and Public Outreach (EPO) focus group for teachers was held in Tucson on February 3-4. Led by LSST Education Specialist Ardis Herrold, the event gathered 11 high school and college educators from across the U.S. to solicit feedback on prototypes of the online educator tools, including Jupyter Notebook-based interactive astronomy investigations, currently being developed by the EPO team. Read more about the meeting in this recent news post. The Project Office kicked off a series of spring LSST subsystem meetings on February 12 in Tucson, AZ. Subsystem managers, administrators, and other project office staff members joined LSST’s Senior Management team for a day of project updates and discussion. A group photo of the event is available in the LSST Gallery. The next subsystem meeting will be held by Telescope and Site, on February 28-March 2 in Tucson. The first column of the LSST Summit …

14 February 2018: Project & Science News A meeting of AURA’s Management Council for LSST (AMCL) took place in Tucson on January 29-30. The AMCL, which meets three times a year, is AURA’s oversight and advocacy committee for LSST. AURA President Matt Mountain was present along with LSST Senior Management for a productive agenda of presentations and discussions. The AMCL will meet again April 19-20 in Washington, DC. The LSST Overview paper will be issued soon; to prepare for this, the Project Office has initiated verification of the “Builders List” in order to correctly credit and recognize the efforts of LSST team members. LSST’s Auxiliary Telescope, which has been under refurbishment at the LSST Project Office in Tucson, will soon undergo functional testing of its mechanical and electrical systems. Read more about the Auxiliary Telescope and its role in the LSST survey in this recent news post. The Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC) …

31 January 2018: Project & Science News The 231st AAS Meeting concluded on January 12 in National Harbor, MD. LSST hosted a well-attended Town Hall during the meeting; slides from presentations given by Beth Willman, Federica Bianco, and Adam Bolton at the event are available here. LSST also staffed an exhibit booth (photo here) in the NSF Pavilion throughout the meeting. To alleviate persistent communications challenges with terminology LSST will no longer use the Data Management terms “Level 1,” “Level 2,” and “Level 3” for communication with the scientific community about LSST data products. Instead we will use the clearer terms “Prompt Products,” “Data Release Products,” and “User Generated Products,” respectively. This terminology is consistent with the descriptions of each of the three product types in Project documents. A selection of community-facing Project documents and webpages are being updated to reflect the change. A Provisional Acceptance Test of the washing facility will take …

18 January 2018: Project & Science News Happy New Year, and welcome back! We hope you all had a relaxing holiday break and are ready for the exciting year ahead. LSST Assembly Integration Verification (AIV) Manager Jacques Sebag submitted this spectacular drone footage of the LSST facility, taken on December 28. The video was taken after the LSST team collaborated with subcontractor Besalco to move the facility mobile roof to the flat area located on the north side of the lower enclosure. Congratulations to all for this achievement at the end of 2017! The LSST Network Engineering Team (NET) is pleased to announce the first successful transfer of digital data over LSST/AURA fiber optic networks from the Summit Site on Cerro Pachon, Chile to the Base Site in La Serena, Chile and on to the Archive Site at NCSA in Champaign. The test transmissions started on December 18 and continued through December 22. …

21 December 2017: Project & Science News On December 13th LSST was featured on ABC 7 News with footage from the SLAC National Accelerator Lab. An all-project LSST Joint Technical Meeting will not be held in 2018 as in past years; instead, individual subsystem meetings will be held in the spring. Dates for each of these meetings can now be found in the Digest meeting list below, or on the LSST website. The first of 21 Science Rafts for LSST’s 3.2-gigapixel camera have arrived at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory from Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). The rafts are arrays of nine imaging sensors, or CCDs, each with 4K-by-4K pixels. To date, 60% of the camera’s sensors have been received at BNL, and delivery rate is on track to maintain the current schedule. Click here for photos of the arrival of the Science Rafts at SLAC. Another milestone for the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) in …

5 December 2017: LSST News Digest Addendum, December 6, 2017 The following item was not included in the December 5 LSST News Digest:Reminder: The deadline for submitting to the 2018 LSST Corporation Enabling Science Call for Proposals is at Midnight (PST) on Monday, December 18. Information and instructions for submitting a proposal can be found at this link (login required) Project & Science News Seeing the Beginning of Time, a NCSA-produced documentary that includes a segment on LSST, will be screened during the upcoming American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting, on Tuesday, January 9 from 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. Check the final AAS meeting schedule for the screening location and other details; more information about the movie can be found here. The Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) continues to come together at subcontractor Asturfeito in Spain; this time-lapse videoshows the top end of the telescope being mounted onto the elevation structure. The TMA is currently …

21 November 2017: Project & Science News A reminder: The LSST Town Hall at AAS 231 will take place on Wednesday, January 10th, 2018, at 7:30 pm. This Town Hall will include developments in the planning of LSST’s observing strategy and commissioning policies, and updates from the LSST Corporation and Science Collaborations on community preparations for science with LSST. A successful LSST Safety Review, conducted by the Safety Council, took place in Chile on November 7-9, 2017. The focus of this review was to assess Chilean Base Facility and Summit Site safety processes. The presentations and tours demonstrated that safety has been effectively integrated into all levels of the Project, and that there is a high level of commitment to safety by LSST Project Management. Click here for a group photo from the event. LSST’s fiber-optic network came one milestone closer to activation last week; the AURA LSST Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) …

7 November 2017: Project & Science News A Day in the Life of LSST Construction, Part III is now available! We received 142 submissions which were compiled into an 11-minute video that can be viewed in the LSST Gallery and on our YouTube channel. Thank you to all contributors, and to LSST Graphic Designer Emily Acosta for assembling the images, videos, and captions together into the final product. Telescope & Site team members Tomislav Vucina and Doug Neil travelled to Germany recently to review progress on the Coating Plant, which will be used to aluminize both LSST’s Primary/Tertiary Mirror (M1M3) and its Secondary Mirror (M2). At the MAN factory in Deggendorf, the LSST Team verified that major components of the Coating Chamber Assembly are in place. The team then traveled to the Von Ardenne facilities in Dresden, where they inspected the Washing Boom and other components of the already-assembled Washing Station. Photos from …

24 October 2017: Project & Science News On the summit of Cerro Pachón, the grouting of the azimuth/dome interface has been completed (click here for a photo). Subcontractor EIE recently held an onsite assembly plan review to confirm the sequence of construction activities, and plans to begin installation of the azimuth rail sections this week. The Primary/Tertiary Mirror (M1M3) cell underwent vacuum testing at subcontractor CAID last week, to identify and eliminate any leaks in the cell. Click here for a photo of the sealed cell during testing, which concluded successfully on October 18. Installation of static supports is scheduled to get underway this week. The first filter for the Commissioning Camera has been completed and has arrived at the Project Office in Tucson. The i-band filter, which is about 12 inches in diameter, is currently undergoing testing in the optics lab. Longtime LSST Communications Manager Suzanne Jacoby will transition to the role …

10 October 2017: Project & Science News The dates and location for the 2018 LSST Project and Community Workshop have been selected; the event will be held at the Hilton El Conquistador in Tucson, AZ on August 13-17, 2018. The Education and Public Outreach (EPO) team recently completed a successful review, which was held in Tucson on September 26-28. EPO has made substantial progress in the last year, and recommendations from this review will be used to guide further development of the EPO program’s infrastructure. Read more about the review, and EPO’s exciting plans to engage the public with LSST data, in this blog post. Congratulations to Vincent Riot (LLNL), who has been appointed the permanent Project Manager for the LSST Camera. Vincent has held this position on an interim basis for just over a year, effectively managing challenges in order to keep the camera project on track. Members of the Telescope & …

26 September 2017: Project & Science News The AURA Management Council for LSST (AMCL) meeting took place September 14-15 in Tucson. The Council met with Project leadership to evaluate and discuss the current state of LSST. They also had access to reports from the recent Joint Status Review and Director’s Review, and were able to productively discuss topics raised in both of these meetings. Many LSST team members traveled to the path of totality for last month’s total solar eclipse and returned with impressive photos and stories to share. You can read about the experiences of Associate Scientist Keith Bechtol and Project Scientist Chuck Claver in this recent blog post. LSST Project Manager Victor Krabbendam led an NSF visit to the LSST sites in Chile on September 20-22. The group toured the summit installations on Cerro Pachón as well as the LSST Base Facility construction in the AURA Recinto in La Serena. The …

14 September 2017: Project & Science News The NSF/DOE Joint Status Review (JSR) took place in Tucson Sept 6-8, in parallel with a separate Earned Value Management System surveillance review covering only the NSF-funded activities. The JSR committee was charged with assessing the current status of the project and to evaluate plans for the future, with emphasis on the next year of construction. The overall consensus of the review committee is that the Project is going very well. This Thursday, Sept 14 the day for LSST Project participants to submit photos for LSST’s next “Day in the Life” (DITL) video. This is our 3rd DITL video and again we hope to get a view of the full breadth of LSST effort being applied on a typical day in LSST construction. Previous versions of the video can be found at the LSST YouTube channel. Updated information on the LSST Deep Drilling Fields has been …

29 August 2017: Project & Science News LSST 2017 wrapped up on August 18th, ending a productive week of presentations, conversations, and collaboration. Over 260 participants gathered for the traditional group photo, and plenary slides have been linked to the workshop agenda. The LSST Project Science Team is hosting a series of presentations for Science Collaboration Chairs based on topics requested by the Chairs. These presentations have been linked to our public website For Scientists page; new talks will be uploaded as they become available. If you are in a Science Collaboration and are interested in a specific topic, please get in touch with your Chair. Two talks on LSST are scheduled for October 16 2017 at the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) meeting: one is on LSST as a NEO Discovery Machine, and another is on LSST Data Products and Tools for Solar System science. Meg Schwamb and David Trilling, co-chairs of …

8 August 2017: Project News We’ve just received confirmation that the LSST Town Hall at AAS 231 will take place on Wednesday, January 10th, 2018 at 7:30 pm. Given LSST’s increasing focus on commissioning and operations planning, this Town Hall will focus on developments in the planning of LSST’s observing strategy and commissioning policies. Representation from the LSST Corporation and Science Collaborations will also briefly highlight key, ongoing initiatives to help the community prepare for science with LSST. The countdown to LSST 2017 continues! Don’t forget to review the most recent agenda when making your plans; if you have questions, please ask them on Slack channel #lsst2017 or on the LSST Community forum. An Ash Dome was safely lifted and installed on the Auxiliary Telescope on Cerro Pachón on August 3. Details about this exciting development can be found in this week’s blog post. The successful installation of a Camera Data Acquisition System …

25 July 2017: Project News LSST 2017 is fast approaching! More than 240 participants have registered for the August 14-18 meeting, and the detailed agenda has been posted. Changes are still being made, so check back before the meeting to see the most up-to-date version. LSST Data Management Subsystem Scientist Mario Juric gave a presentation titled What to Expect of the LSST Archive: The LSST Science Platform at the LSST Science Collaboration Chairs/Project Science Team meeting on July 18th. Slides from his talk are available here. Dr. Amanda Bauer, Head of Education and Public Outreach, presented LSST Education and Public Outreach at the same meeting; her slides can be viewed here. The azimuth structure of the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA), which is supported on a set of six azimuth and six radial hydrostatic bearings, floated on oil for the first time this month at subcontractor Asturfeito’s facility in Spain. The system was pressurized …

11 July 2017: Project News The registration and hotel booking deadline for the LSST 2017 Project and Community Workshop is July 20--less than two weeks away--so please make your arrangements as soon as possible. Watch the LSST 2017 website for the detailed agenda, scheduled to be released in mid-July. An LSST management team visited vendors Asturfeito and Tekniker in Spain from June 19-23 to inspect progress and review upcoming work. The group attended a multi-day testing and verification workshop for the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) at Asturfeito, and the Camera cable wrap assembly and the Primary/Tertiary Mirror (M1M3) cover at Tekniker. Photos from the visit are available in the LSST Gallery. The Factory Assembly Plan (FAP) Review for the LSST Coating Plant took place from July 5-7 at the Von Ardenne GmnH facility in Dresden, Germany. Members of LSST’s Telescope & Site (T&S) team reviewed the Coating Plant assembly process described in the …

20 June 2017: Project News Don’t forget to register for the LSST 2017 Project and Community Workshop, which will take place at the Westin La Paloma in Tucson, AZ the week of August 14-18. Although the deadline to suggest a session has passed, we encourage ongoing discussions on the LSST2017 Community Forum. Your ideas and feedback will be valuable as sessions are planned and the Workshop agenda is finalized. Make LSST 2017 YOUR meeting! The LSST Science Advisory Committee will have a face-to-face meeting the morning of August 14, in coordination with LSST 2017. All attendees to LSST 2017 are welcome to join. Please refer to the published LSST 2017 agenda for the time and location of the meeting. The LSST Operations Proposal Review meeting took place on June 7-8. This in-person meeting between Red Team reviewers and project leadership enabled productive discussion that will contribute to the overall strengthening of the Proposal. …

6 June 2017: Project News Registration is now open for the LSST 2017 Project and Community Workshop, which will take place at the Westin La Paloma in Tucson, AZ the week of August 14th. Click here for more details and a link to registration. Agenda topics are currently being solicited; you can make your suggestions by clicking “Suggest a Session” on the workshop home page. We look forward to seeing you at #LSST2017! A draft of the LSST Operations Proposal is now in the hands of 19 external red team reviewers. The review team’s reading period has ended, and feedback will be discussed with Project leadership at a face-to-face meeting on June 7-8. A joint teleconference between the Project Science Team and the chairs of Science Collaborations was held on May 30. The main topic was “LSST Plans for Cadence Optimization.” Slides are available at this link, and the audio recording it can …