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Snow Days on Cerro Pachón

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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. 

LSST: Constructing a New Era in Astronomy

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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

Training for Tomorrow

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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.

Supporting Progress – updated 4/27/17

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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. 

Cerro Pachón Goes Hollywood

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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.

Coating Chamber Final Design Review

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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.

Construction Progress

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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. 

LSST: Everything has Started, Nothing is Finished!

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March 10, 2017 – The annual LSST Joint Technical Meeting (JTM) took place in Glendale, CA this week, with 174 in attendance, the largest number of participants yet.  This gave the team a chance to review accomplishments and, more importantly, work face-to-face across the distributed project on current challenges.  Project Manager Victor Krabbendam reported that the DOE-funded Camera is 57% complete and the NSF-funded elements of LSST are 36% complete.  The project “earns” about $7.5 million per month of work completed, and has a current earned value of $225million.  The 13-month schedule contingency remains intact. 

Right on Schedule

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March 3, 2017 - Version 1.0 of the Observatory Control System (OCS) Scheduler has been released by the LSST Telescope & Site team to the Systems Engineering Simulations team. This important milestone marks the first version of the Scheduler that has all the functionality necessary to implement the five science proposals in the current survey baseline: Wide Fast Deep, North Ecliptic Spur, South Celestial Pole, Galactic Plane, and Deep Drilling. The software will now be validated through a series of simulated surveys and analysis, while the development continues to incorporate the remaining features described in the requirements and construction plan.

Construction Progress

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February 17, 2017 - New drone images from the summit of Cerro Pachón show the rapid progress of LSST construction. You can see the circular lower enclosure with the telescope pier inside, the elevator shaft, and the (long rectangular) service building. The third image shows white siding going up on the lower enclosure and progress on the foundation for the Auxiliary Telescope. Inside the facilities building windows are appearing, drywall is going up and cable trays are being installed. The summit team has one month to get ready for the start of Dome installation.

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Financial support for Rubin Observatory comes from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Cooperative Support Agreement No. 1202910, the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science under Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515, and private funding raised by the LSST Corporation. The NSF-funded Rubin Observatory Project Office for construction was established as an operating center under management of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA).  The DOE-funded effort to build the the Rubin Observatory LSST Camera (LSSTCam) is managed by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC).
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science. NSF supports basic research and people to create knowledge that transforms the future.
NSF and DOE will continue to support Rubin Observatory in its Operations phase. They will also provide support for scientific research with LSST data.   




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