Rubin Observatory Digest for 18 March 2025

19 March 2025

Project and Science News

The LSST Camera was successfully installed on the Simonyi Survey Telescope in early March, and the news was announced to the public on March 12th through a joint NSF–DOE press release. The LSST Camera was the final major component to be installed, and this exciting milestone marks the completion of the full and final optical system. Rubin Observatory is now in its final phase of testing, with on-sky observations starting soon. 

Registration for the 2025 Rubin Community Workshop, to be held in Tucson July 28 - August 1, is now open. Please visit the meeting website for more information and a link to register. 

Rubin leadership and staff joined representatives from Rubin’s operating partners and funding agencies in Washington, DC on March 3-4 for the fourth and final in-person coordination workshop to discuss Rubin First Look — the first public release of Rubin images scheduled for mid-2025. A group photo from the workshop is available in the Gallery. 

For those planning celebrations around Rubin’s First Look, we’re pleased to share this tentative timeline resulting from the recent Rubin First Look Workshop: The First Look press conference is tentatively scheduled for June 17, 2025, in Washington, DC, with a back-up date of July 16, 2025. At the start of the press conference, the official press release will be published, and the embargo will lift on a set of image products showcasing Rubin’s awesome capabilities to the world for the first time. We anticipate simultaneous celebrations at Rubin-engaged facilities across the globe. For more details on what to expect and to coordinate your event with us, please reach out to comms@noirlab.edu

Team members from across the Rubin project gathered at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory on March 11-13 for a Joint Technical Meeting (JTM) focused on technical details surrounding two important upcoming activities: the LSST Camera on-sky commissioning period, and Data Preview 1 featuring data from Rubin’s Commissioning Camera (ComCam). A group photo from the JTM is available in the Gallery. 

Rubin in the Media

Among the first media stories to be published about the recent LSST Camera installation was this story on ABC7 in San Francisco, “World’s largest digital camera created in the Bay Area installed in Chile, which includes an interview with Aaron Roodman, Deputy Director of Rubin Construction from SLAC.

A Fox Weather article, “Who was Vera Rubin? Dark matter astronomer's legacy continues through new observatory,” was published on March 12th It features an interview with Beth Willman, Executive Director of the LSST Discovery Alliance. 

Operations Updates

Members of the Rubin Education and Public Outreach (EPO) and Communications teams met with a group of media relations and outreach specialists at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore on March 6th. During this daylong meeting, the teams explored potential collaborations between Rubin Observatory and the Roman Space Telescope, identifying synergies and brainstorming future joint projects. 

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. 

Personnel Announcements & Opportunities:

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, Zeljko, Bob, or Phil, 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 use this form (login required) to make 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): 

2025

June 8-12	AAS 246 Summer Meeting, Anchorage, AK
June 25-29	European Astronomical Society (EAS) annual meeting, Cork, Ireland
July 14-18	Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) Science Collaboration meeting, Durham, UK
July 21-25	Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC) meeting, Urbana-Champaign, IL & virtual
July 28-August 1	Rubin Community Workshop 2025, Tucson, AZ
September 14-19	LSST@Europe7, Poznan, Poland