lsstpo's blog

November 17, 2016 - Project Scientist Zeljko Ivezic and Data Management team member Meredith Rawls, both astronomers at the University of Washington, along with David Ciardi, the science lead for LSST’s Science User Interface Team (SUIT) from IPAC, all participated in the 105^th Meeting of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) in Boston, MA, November 10 – 12, 2016.  The theme of this year’s meeting was The AAVSO's Role in the Age of Large Surveys and throughout the meeting, many presentations and discussions explored ways in which amateur astronomers could contribute their expertise to extend the science being done by surveys such as LSST,

November 17, 2016 - LSST Science Collaboration Coordinator Lucianne Walkowicz got an up-close tour of the LSST site this week. She was part of a group in La Serena for a Gemini Board meeting and was able to join a group tour of Gemini-South and the LSST construction site on Cerro Pachón.  Wearing their safety vests, hard hats, and steel-toed shoes, the group was able to see recent progress which includes work beginning on the calibration telescope

November 11, 2016 - LSST Systems Engineers George Angeli, Kathryn Wesson, Gregory Dubois-Felsmann, and Brian Selvy met in Pasadena, CA, last week with other major astronomy projects and software vendors (NoMagic, Intercax) to explore the use of model-based systems engineering (MBSE) tools.  Representatives from LSST, TMT, GMT, and

November 4, 2016 - Four engineers from LSST attended the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) meeting in Philadelphia, PA, October 27 - 29, a meeting which brought together 5000 individuals for professional and personal development.  AURA sponsored a booth at the meeting on behalf of LSST, NOAO, NSO, Gemini and STScI

November 4, 2016 - UW astronomy Research Scientists John Parejko and David Reiss presented "LSST: Mining the Universe in 4D" to a crowd of 250-300 beer drinkers at a local Seattle bar for a special edition of "Astronomy on Tap”.  This monthly event partnered with TEDx this time around and drew a crowd of about 300 enthusiastic attendees.

November 1, 2016 - Today SLAC launched a new media-rich website and video about the LSST digital camera, the largest ever built for astronomy.  Ranked as the top ground-based national priority for the field for the current decade, LSST is currently under construction in Chile. The U.S. Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is leading the construction of the LSST camera – the largest digital camera ever built for astronomy. Financial support for LSST comes from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and private funding raised by the LSST Corporation.

October 28, 2016 - LSST was prominent at last week’s AAS DPS/EPSC meeting in Pasadena, CA, starting with a workshop titled “Getting to Know the LSST”.  Deputy Director Beth Willman presented a summary and status of LSST followed by Nate Lust presenting work on false positive rates for LSST moving objects and Lynne Jones (and the littlest #LSST scientist) talking about LSST's observing strategy and aspects of LSST's planetary astronomy science capabilities.  A few dozen people attended the workshop, which wrapped up with an engaged Q&A session. 

October 20, 2016 – The first LSST hardware integration between vendors took place today on Cerro Pachón, a major milestone! This image shows the lowering of a steel base plate for the dome azimuth track (from EIE in Italy) atop the concrete wall of the lower enclosure (from Besalco in Chile). This  plate, the first of 16, weighs about one and a half tons and is lifted by crane over 50 feet in the air for installation. The plates and their anchor bolts will be installed and precisely aligned/level and then left for a curing period of 90 days. After that 3-month curing of the concrete, EIE will return to more precisely level and install grout under the base plates, which will provide the foundation for the continued integration of the dome azimuth track system. 

October 14, 2016 - University of Washington hosted a meeting of the managers of Data Management software teams last week. The group focused on finalizing definitions of work packages and cost estimation needed for the upcoming baseline change request related to the DM replan.  Shown in the picture, with their “special” cake baked by LSST Project Scientist Zeljko Ivezic, are (L-R front row) S. Krughoff, X. Wu, and J. Becla. Behind them (L-R) are F. Economou, Fritz Mueller, K.T. Lim, J. Swinbank, and LSST Project Controls Specialist K. Long. 

October 8, 2016 - This LSST poster was recently updated to support the 2016 "White House Astronomy Night" hosted by the University of Pittsburgh next week at their Allegheny Observatory. This event was inspired by the 2015 White House Astronomy Night held on the South Lawn, which included an evening of stargazing. The poster, created by graphic designer Emily Acosta, is being made available in three sizes for downloading.