Blogs

June 28, 2022 - The American Astronomical Society (AAS) offered its first hybrid conference (in-person and virtual attendance both supported) in over two years on June 8-13, in Pasadena, California, and Rubin Observatory was there! AAS 240 was one of the biggest summer meetings AAS has ever hosted, its 2022 winter meeting was scheduled to take place in Salt Lake City in January, but it was canceled at the last minute because of a spike in COVID-19 cases.

May 13, 2022 - On April 8th, the LSST Camera team at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory successfully attached the Cryostat to the Camera Body in the IR2 clean room, bringing the camera’s three primary structures—the Cryostat, the Utility Trunk, and the Camera Body—together for the first time. The Cryostat contains the camera’s 201 sensors (each one 16 megapixels), and the 28" entrance lens (L3), with the ancillary electronics and vacuum systems installed on the outside. The Camera Body will ultimately provide support for the camera shutter, filter exchange system, and the two primary lenses (L1 and L2). 

April 27, 2022 - Washing and drying an 8.4-meter mirror is no simple task, but with specialized equipment and procedures that are now being developed, the team on the summit will be able to keep both of Rubin Observatory’s mirrors clean and optimally reflective throughout the ten-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). This video shows the washing station in action with the mirror surrogate, as the team works on defining the washing and drying parameters that will be used to clean the real Primary/Tertiary Mirror (M1M3) in the future. 

April 12, 2022 - The Rubin Observatory dome has a new look, after the team from EIE and the Chilean contractor SyR applied natural mill-finished aluminum sheeting to the dome’s exterior over the last several months. No longer white, the dome’s snazzy reflective surface appears silver, or sometimes blue as it reflects the sky.

How do you design an automated astronomical survey that enables as much science as possible? For the past few years, the Rubin Observatory team has worked closely with the scientific community to focus on this question, and now Rubin Observatory is in the final stages of defining the initial survey strategy for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).

**Versión en Español más abajo**

Dear Colleagues,

Since my appointment as Director of Rubin Construction I’ve been working with the team to set up further appointments in the Director’s office (pending NSF approval). 

Dear Colleagues,

It is my pleasure to communicate to you all that Matt Mountain (AURA President) has announced that Željko Ivezić will assume the role of Director of Rubin Observatory Construction upon my departure from the Project on January 3, 2022. 

November 12, 2021 - The LSST Camera team at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory celebrated a very cold day at the beginning of November—not because of the weather, but because both of the systems that keep the LSST Camera cool were running successfully together for the first time since January 2021.