Rubin Digest 04 April 2024

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 F. Caris Mirror Lab was onsite to conduct the lift using the vacuum lifting fixture built specifically for the M1M3. Once the mirror was securely on the cell, both were covered and moved to the vertical platform lift to keep them safely out of the way of other work going on in the area until it’s time to begin the process of washing and coating the mirror with protected silver — coming soon.

The Data Management (DM) team recently shared this annotated plot representing all the data (17.8 TB!) recorded in the Engineering Facilities Database (EFD) to date. The EFD is the central repository for telemetry data from different subsystems relating to the Rubin Summit facility. Thanks to DM team member Angelo Fausti for preparing this plot with the annotations explaining the variations in the data over time. As the plot shows, 2023 was an exciting year for the project.

Friday April 5th is the early-bird deadline to submit abstracts for talks and posters for the Rubin Community Workshop 2024. The Scientific Organizing Committee (SOC) anticipates being able to accommodate all requests submitted by this date; the late abstracts deadline will be announced soon. Advisors wishing to reserve a poster spot for their summer student may submit now on their behalf.

The AURA Management Council for Rubin Observatory (AMCR) met virtually on March 27th. At the meeting, Rubin leadership briefed the Council on current status, challenges, and projections in preparation for the more detailed in-person AMCR meeting to be held in Tucson, AZ, May 5-7.

The upcoming NASA Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG) Meeting #31 will be held virtually on July 11 - 12, 2024. There will be multiple opportunities at this meeting specifically for the early-career small body community to participate, including invited early career speakers and lightning talks. Applications for invited talks and lightning talks are due via email by April 19th. More info and details about application requirements are on the meeting website.

Operations Updates: 

All are welcome at the weekly Rubin Science Assemblies, live virtual sessions that focus on learning to use the Rubin Science Platform (RSP). Upcoming sessions will cover phase curve analysis in the Portal with DP0.2 (April 4th) and the creation of custom coadded images with DP0.2 (April 18th).

Congratulations to Ardis Herrold, Education Specialist for Rubin Observatory, for winning a Distinguished Service award from the National Earth Science Teachers Association (NESTA). The award was presented during the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) annual conference held March 20-23 in Denver, CO.

Personnel Announcements & Opportunities:

Alexis Aracena joined the Telescope & Site team as Dome Mechanical Technician on April 1st. Alexis previously worked as a foreman for the company SyR who installed all of the dome cladding, built the on-site warehouse and did other jobs for Rubin. Now, in his direct role with Rubin, Alexis will be leading sheet-metal and other light mechanical type projects for completion of dome construction.

Please spread the word about a new Rubin position opening for Lead Build Engineer. Visit the Rubin hiring page to see all open positions with Rubin.

Info for Project Members:

Nominate someone for Rubin’s staff awards program to recognize outstanding performance! More information and the nomination form are available on the Staff Awards page on the Project website (login required).

If you’d like to schedule a one-on-one meeting with Victor or Zeljko, please fill out this form to indicate your preferred date and time.

Rubin Observatory swag items, including t-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, and more, are available for purchase in our not-for-profit online store.

Upcoming Meetings with Rubin Observatory Involvement

(those with an asterisk* are supported by LSST Discovery Alliance):

2024

April 15-19	KAVLI-IAU (IAUS 387) Symposium, “(Toward) Discovery of Life Beyond Earth and its Impact,” Durham, UK
April 16-18	Rubin Joint Operations Review, Tucson, AZ
April 17-19	Time-Domain Needles in Rubin’s Haystack, Cambridge, MA
May 5-7	AURA Management Council for Rubin Observatory (AMCR) Meeting, Tucson, AZ
June 10-14	LSST@LATAM, La Serena, Chile
June 16-21	SPIE Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation Meeting, Yokohama, Japan
July 8-12	DESC Collaboration Meeting, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
July 22-26	Rubin Community Workshop (formerly PCW), SLAC Menlo Park, CA
September 16-20	LSST@Europe6, La Palma, Spain*

Upcoming Deadlines:

2024

April 5	Abstract submittals for Rubin Community Workshop 2024
June 21	Registration deadline for the Rubin Community Workshop 2024 (if the 250 limit is not reached earlier)