NSF's NOIRLab @ National Society of Black Physicists Conference 2022

Not the site you were expecting?

You may find what you are looking for in the list of NOIRLab's earlier exhibitions. Also, you may have a look at the official NSBP 2022 Conference website!

Artistic representation of NOIRLab domes and services with a picture of the Milky Way in the background.

Looking for opportunities at NSF's NOIRLab?

Job listing

Montage of 6 pictures showing NOIRLab staff at their work place.
  Please read about the wide range of career opportunities that NOIRLab can offer you.
Whether you are looking for a short term internship or for your next career step, check out our open job postings
If you prefer you may access our list of internships only.

Postdoc opportunity:

Attention Early Career researchers! November 15, 2022 is the deadline to apply for the LSSTC Catalyst Fellowship. The LSSTC Catalyst Fellowship funded by the John Templeton Foundation supports postdoctoral researchers in astrophysics and the social sciences. The Fellowship is focused on realizing the full potential of the Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), both through new discoveries and creating exceptional opportunities for astrophysics and social science researchers, including those from traditionally under-represented groups and institutions.

  Current LSSTC Catalyst Fellows.

La Serena School For Data Science

The La Serena School for Data Science (LSSDS) is an intensive 10-day program of interdisciplinary lectures focused on applied tools for handling big astronomical data. Participants will be instructed in how astronomical data are processed, accessed and analyzed, including reduction pipelines, databases, and scientific programming. In addition, working with data from other disciplines, such as bioinformatics, is also introduced. The School is expected to be in-person for 2023 and will be taught by an international and interdisciplinary group of professors who will use real data and examples. Participants will work on team-based projects and be provided training and access to the National Laboratory for High Performance Computing located at the University of Chile's Center for Mathematical Modeling. The school is open to undergraduates and early-career graduate students. Applications for the 2023 August school will be accepted in February - April 2023. Check the webpage for upcoming details: http://lssds.aura-astronomy.org/winter_school/.

La Serena School for Data Science poster.

Gemini Card Game box.
 

Looking for the Gemini Card Game's rules?

Find them, and more on the GCG page!

The Gemini Card Game is a cooperative game for 2 to 4 players who work together to complete science programs over the course of 2 week turns for a semester. Experience the complex decisions required to run a world class observatory and the excitement of contributing to a team as you provide researchers with their precious data and contribute to expanding the knowledge of the Universe. If you are lucky, you may get your at the NSF's NOIRLab's booth!


 

About NSF's NOIRLab

NSF's NOIRLab is very enthusiastic about joining the NSBP 2022 conference in person! You can find us at our booth for the whole duration of the conference. We are happy to answer any of your questions, and we have some nice handouts to give away. Come before we run out!

Map of the exhibit hall with the position of the NOIRLab booth.

Here is a map to remember where we are!

NOIRLab is the whole package, from proposal to data collection and analysis and then dissemination of results to a broad community. Through our facilities — the International Gemini Observatory, operations of Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the Mid-scale Observatories (Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory [CTIO] and Kitt Peak National Observatory [KPNO]) and the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC) — we enable breakthrough discoveries in astrophysics for a diverse and inclusive community. We are privileged to conduct astronomical research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawaiʻi, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that these sites have to the Tohono O'odham Nation, to the Native Hawaiian community, and to the local communities in Chile, respectively.

"Vera C. Rubin observatory logo"

About Vera C. Rubin Observatory

View of the Vera Rubin observatory dome in the sunset.

The first goal of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is to conduct the 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). LSST will deliver a 500-petabyte set of images and data products that will address some of the most pressing questions about the structure and evolution of the universe and the objects in it. Rubin Observatory’s mission is to produce an unprecedented astronomical data set for studies of the deep and dynamic universe, make the data widely accessible to a diverse community of scientists, and engage the public to explore the Universe with us.

Construction of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is steadily approaching completion with operations set to begin in 2024. The effort to build Rubin Observatory is a partnership between public and private organizations, which is actively being supported and developed by hundreds of astronomers, physicists, and engineers spanning the globe.

Interested in preparing for Early Science?

In 2021, Rubin Observatory began Data Preview 0 (DP0), the first of three data previews during the period leading up to the start of Rubin Operations. DP0 makes simulated LSST-like data products available in the Rubin Science Platform (RSP) to a limited number of scientists and students (“DP0 delegates”). The goals of DP0 are to serve as an early integration test of the LSST science pipelines and the RSP, and to enable the community to prepare for early science with LSST. If you're interested in participating in DP0 as a delegate, please come and talk to us at the booth in the exhibit hall! We look forward to hearing about your plans for LSST-related science and helping you prepare for it.

"US-ELTP logos"

US Extremely Large Telescope Program

Blue prints of GMT and TMT over a spectacular image of a molecular cloud.

 

The US Extremely Large Telescope Program (US-ELTP) is an endeavor to develop a two-telescope, two-hemisphere single system for the next generation of ground-based telescopes. This nationally funded Program is a collaboration between NSF’s NOIRLab and the organizations building the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) and the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and was ranked the highest ground-based priority for the 2020s decade in the United States. Scientists at US institutions will have equal opportunity to access 25% of the observing time on GMT and TMT to observe objects anywhere in the sky and carry out transformational research. NOIRLab will facilitate an open peer-review process, archive all science data from both observatories, and provide an extensive suite of user support and data analysis services.

 

International Gemini Observatory

Inside of the Gemini North dome with the vent gates opened.

The International Gemini Observatory consists of twin 8.1-meter diameter optical/infrared telescopes located on two of the best observing sites on the planet. From their locations on Maunakea in Hawai‘i and Cerro Pachón in Chile, Gemini Observatory's telescopes can together observe the entire sky. In support of the worldwide Gemini Partnership, the Gemini telescopes deploy a mix of facility-class infrared and visual-wavelength instruments, with more novel capabilities supplied by its visiting instrument program. Their agile operational model provides astronomers with many different timescales for proposing and executing observations and will be particularly important for following up the discoveries to come from the Rubin Observatory LSST. Under Gemini's motto "Exploring the Universe, Sharing its Wonders", the observatory pairs its ground-breaking astronomy with powerful educational programs such as Journey Through the Universe.

Community Science and Data Center

Archive imaging data sky coverage as of 2019.

NOIRLab's Community Science & Data Center (CSDC) facilitates and supports community open access to telescopes operated by MSO, Gemini, and other organizations across the US ground-based optical and infrared system. The CSDC also provides software systems, user services, and development initiatives to connect and support the scientific missions of Gemini, MSO-CTIO, MSO-KPNO, and Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

 

Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory

Cerro Tololo seen from a distance with a stunning view over the Cordillera at sunset.

From the first observations in 1965, Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), located in Chile, has served as the principal platform for US astronomical investigation of the southern skies.


CTIO operates the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope on Cerro Tololo, which features the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), a high-performance, wide-field CCD imager built to carry out the Dark Energy Survey (DES) (a US Department of Energy Office of Science-led project). It also operates the 4.1-meter Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope on the adjacent Cerro Pachón (a partnership between Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações e Comunicações Brazil, NOIRLab, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Michigan State University). The Cerro Tololo 1.5-meter and 0.9-meter telescopes are being operated by the SMARTS Consortium with support from CTIO. Cerro Tololo also hosts 11 tenant observatories and research projects — in total around 40  telescopes, providing a platform for access to the southern hemisphere for US and worldwide scientific research.

 

Kitt Peak National Observatory

Kitt Peak Observatory with star trails.

Founded in 1958, Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) is home to one of the largest arrays of optical and radio telescopes in the world.


KPNO operates the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope on behalf of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey (a project led by the US Department of Energy Office of Science) and the WIYN 3.5-meter Telescope (a partnership between Indiana University, the University of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Missouri-Columbia, Purdue University, the NSF and NASA). It also hosts the facilities of consortia that operate between them more than a dozen optical telescopes and two radio telescopes.
KPNO is located 90 km (56 miles) southwest of Tucson, Arizona in the Schuk Toak District on the Tohono O'odham Nation.
 


Exhibit Resources and Handouts

Updated on November 9, 2022, 9:17 am