Rubin Digest 05 November 2024

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 leadership and managers participated in “Construction Readiness Review #1,” which was held October 25 - November 1 in La Serena, Chile. This was the first in a series of agency reviews to ensure that Rubin is on track to successfully finish construction and hand over to operations. In addition to viewing status presentations on all aspects of the Project, the review committee and representatives from NSF and DOE toured the Rubin facility and admired the fully assembled Simonyi Survey Telescope. Recommendations from the review committee will be delivered to the Project in the coming weeks. Photos are available in the Gallery.

Thanks to your votes and your help encouraging others, we’re excited to announce that Rubin has been selected for a panel at SXSW 2025! The festival will be held March 7-15, 2025, in Austin, Texas. See the event listing for Rubin’s panel, “Revealing the Universe with the Biggest Movie Ever Made,” for details. We’ll share the date and time of the session when it’s announced. 

Planning is underway for Rubin’s presence at the American Astronomical Society Winter meeting (AAS 245), to be held in National Harbor, MD, January 12-16. In addition to an exhibit booth, Rubin will host a Town Hall on January 14 from 12:45-1:45 p.m. ET. We hope to see many of you at the meeting.

Daylight Saving Time in the US ended on November 1st. Rubin uses Pacific Time as its meeting time standard, the time change may affect meetings for distributed participants. We encourage you to contact the meeting organizer to confirm meeting start times if you’re unsure. 

Operations Updates

Sarah Greenstreet and Aaron Meisner, both astronomers at NOIRLab and members of Rubin’s Community Science Team, staffed a booth at the 56th annual AAS Division of Planetary Sciences (DPS) meeting in Boise, Idaho, in early October. Experts from the Rubin/LSST Solar System Processing team at the University of Washington were also on hand to answer questions from meeting attendees. Conference participants were excited about the upcoming start of Rubin’s LSST and opportunities for follow-up with NOIRLab’s numerous facilities. This year’s DPS booth lays the groundwork for continued NOIRLab/Rubin engagement with the planetary science community at future DPS meetings.

Reminder: If you plan to work with Rubin Data in the future, we encourage you to sign up for an account on the Rubin Science Platform now. This will allow you to get familiar with the interface, work out any issues, and get your data rights verified by the project so you can be sure to get data immediately when Data Preview 1 (DP1) is released. Rubin Data Rights holders can sign up for an account any time by following the instructions here. 

Rubin in the Media:

CNN Science published a recent article about Rubin: “Telescope with world’s largest digital camera will be a ‘game-changer’ for astronomy.” The feature provides a detailed overview of Rubin Observatory and its science and includes perspectives from Rubin staff and science community members.

Personnel Announcements & Opportunities:

Humna Awan began work as Survey Scheduling Team Scientist at the beginning of October. Humna is based at SLAC, and will be working on optimizing and evaluating the survey strategy as Rubin heads into operations as well as monitoring survey progress once the survey starts.

Shenming Fu joined the System Performance Department as a Rubin Community Scientist on October 14th. Shenming is a KIPAC research associate and will be based at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

Minhee Hyun joined the Rubin team as an Observing Specialist on November 4th. Minhee is an Observing Specialist postdoc, responsible for operating and troubleshooting the Simonyi and Auxiliary telescope systems.

Rubin has new openings for Observing Specialists at all career stages. More information about these and other open positions with Rubin can be found on the Rubin hiring page.

Info for Project Members:

Nominate someone deserving for a future staff award 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. 

The link to Rubin’s anonymous “suggestion box” will be changing soon, until a new link is announced please contact our Workplace Culture Advocates (login required) with your suggestions. 

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

November 6-8	AURA Management Council for Rubin Observatory (AMCR) Meeting, La Serena, Chile
November 10-14	Astronomical Data Analysis Software & Systems (ADASS), Malta
November 11-15	XIX Chilean Astronomical Society (SOCHIAS) Annual Meeting, Arica, Chile

2025

January 12-16	American Astronomical Society (AAS 245) Winter Meeting, National Harbor, MD
January 14	Rubin Town Hall at AAS 245