Blogs

June 20, 2017 - Sandrine Thomas, Project Scientist for LSST’s Telescope and Site Subsystem, took some time out from her busy work schedule last week to sit down with Alison Rose of Inigo Films for an extended on-camera interview. Interviews were also conducted with LSST Director Steve Kahn, LSST Deputy Director Beth Willman, and LSST Project Manager Victor Krabbendam.

Each of the four interviewees gave his or her own perspective on the rewards and challenges involved in leading a diverse, distributed team tasked with building a revolutionary telescope. The interviews were conducted as informal conversations, allowing for in-depth explorations of interesting topics.

June 2, 2017 - Members of LSST’s Primary/Tertiary Mirror (M1M3) integration team recently completed training on the Leica Absolute Laser Tracker AT-930, a sophisticated tool for collecting precise measurements in three dimensions. The laser tracker will be used for a multitude of tasks associated with M1M3 integration, including accurate positioning of static supports and wedges for hardpoints.

May 26, 2017 - Work on the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) by subcontractor Asturfeito in Spain is progressing rapidly. An auxiliary second level platform has been installed, providing access to the azimuth floor. In addition, azimuth radial bearings have been placed and vertical seismic stops have been trial fitted. Currently, the plan is to float the azimuth structure on the hydrostatic bearings in July, which will be the first time the base of the TMA supports the full structural load.

May 19, 2017 – As summer starts to heat up here in the north, a major winter storm swept through Cerro Pachón in the southern hemisphere this past week, dropping nearly 16 inches (40 cm) of snow on the summit. Site Manager Eduardo Serrano was able to access the summit after the storm to provide photos of the snow blanketing the construction site. The snow was preceded by significant rain which washed out sections of the road, causing problems for trucks and staff-transporting buses. The same front also brought heavy rain to La Serena, dropping 8 inches (20 cm) of rain in just a couple of days, which is the area's usual annual rainfall. 

May 2, 2017 - Fly over the summit of Cerro Pachón in Chile with us and see how quickly LSST is becoming a reality! This video documents the progress of construction so far, dramatically capturing the scale and complexity of the ongoing project.

A multimedia team was contracted to document the project via drone film footage, time-lapse sequences, panorama images, and full dome clips. This LSST blog post describes the details of the film crew's March 2017 visit to the construction site.

Music licensed from Extreme Music

April 28, 2017 - The third session of the LSSTC Data Science Fellowship Program (DSFP), hosted jointly by NOAO and the University of Arizona, took place this week in Tucson. The Data Science Fellowship Program is a two-year training program supported primarily by the LSST Corporationthrough its Enabling Science Initiative, with additional contributions from Northwestern University. The program is designed to teach astronomy students essential skills that will prepare them to work with big data from LSST.

April 27, 2017 - Further progress has been made on the Spanish pier. Both azimuth supports are now in place on the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA), and the main connecting I-beam known as the "keel" has been attached between them. The orange banks of capacitors were pre-installed on the keel beam prior to its attachment. 

April 7, 2017 - Last week was an “other duties as necessary” kind of work week for LSST Graphic Designer Emily Acosta and Telescope Site Manager Eduardo Serrano. Emily traveled from Tucson to Cerro Pachón to meet a nine-member multimedia team directed by Alison Rose of Inigo Films and to coordinate with Eduardo so the media team’s work didn’t interfere with ongoing construction activities. Inigo Films was contracted to document the current state of construction via drone film footage, time-lapse sequences, panorama images, and full dome clips.

March 31, 2017 - The Final Design Review for the LSST Coating Plant took place last week in Germany.  Four members of the Telescope & Site team (Tomislav Vucina, Doug Neil, Constanza Araujo, and John Andrew) traveled with Systems Engineer Brian Selvy to the  Von Ardenne GmbH facility in Dresden.

March 17, 2017 – On many fronts and in many places, construction on LSST is moving ahead quickly.

In Spain, the Telescope Mount Assembly construction continues with a successful trial fit of the Azimuth support on its track.  An Azimuth axial bearing was placed in its position in order to check the interface with support.  Clearances for components assembly were checked and minor adjustments will be made on some parts.  This trial fit proved very useful in preparing for on-site installation in 2018.