LSST Update: Science Collaboration Membership Applications Invited

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) project and NOAO announce the opportunity for interested members of the US astronomy and physics communities to participate in shaping the science for the LSST survey through membership in the LSST Science Collaborations. This is the second such opportunity to participate (see July 2008 Currents), and it is likely that there will be future opportunities as well.

Over the course of ten years, the LSST will perform a six-band, multi-epoch optical survey of half the sky with an unprecedented combination of speed and depth. These data will allow major advances in many subject areas, such as the following:

• Dark energy and dark matter
• Distant supernovae
• Large-scale distribution of galaxies
• Stellar populations
• Astrometry
• Structure of the Milky Way
• Solar System studies and near earth asteroids
• Time-domain investigations spanning many topics of interest

More information is available at:

http://www.lsst.org and http://arxiv.org/abs/0805.2366.

The Science Collaborations, which are opening their membership to the US science community, will help develop and document the science opportunities provided by the LSST, finalize the design of the system and observing strategy, undertake end-to-end simulations, commission instrument and data management systems, and develop and ultimately perform analyses of LSST science data. These collaborations are intended to work closely with the LSST construction project, although they are autonomous ventures.

Individuals (including groups of up to three) who wish to join an existing collaboration or to define a new collaboration are asked to submit a proposal through NOAO. Further details and information on applying for membership are available at:

http://www.noao.edu/lsst/collab_prop/Scicollab.htm (Note: this link is no longer available).

The application deadline is 21 September 2009. Questions may be addressed to Tod R. Lauer at lauer@noao.edu.