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Keeping it Clean

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Finding the Balance

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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).

Announcement: Director’s Office appointments / Anuncio - Nombramientos en la Oficina del Director

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**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). 

Željko Ivezić appointed Director of Rubin Observatory Construction

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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. 

Camera Lift Practice

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December 7, 2021 - On a sunny day at the end of November, the team on the summit of Cerro Pachón completed the big task—in terms of size and importance—of removing and re-installing the camera surrogate mass from the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA). The camera surrogate mass is a steel structure that approximates the mass of the LSST Camera assembly, used for testing system interfaces and procedures before  the real, and far more delicate, LSST Camera arrives on the summit.* This procedure was carried out using the bridge crane installed inside the observatory dome, and the camera lifting fixture—a yellow, claw-like contraption that was custom-built for just this purpose. 

Camera Cooldown

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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.

Optical Achievements

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October 19, 2021 - The last of the six Rubin Observatory LSST Camera filters arrived at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in September, an event that marked the completion of the major camera components and the end of years of work by engineers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), who designed and managed the fabrication of the camera’s lenses and filters. 

Mass Simulator for the LSST Camera Arrives in Chile

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September 21, 2021 - The mass simulator for the Rubin Observatory LSST Camera was shipped from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory on September 3rd, 2021, and arrived successfully on the summit of Cerro Pachón, in Chile, on September 13th. This shipment was an important test run for the valuable and delicate LSST Camera, which is scheduled to ship to Chile from SLAC next year. The entire shipment process was carefully monitored and tested to record any events that might indicate the possibility of damage to the LSST Camera, and we're happy to report that not a single one occurred!

New Initiative will Advance Science with Rubin Observatory

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Photo of Rubin Observatory taken from above by a drone. The observatory has a white dome and a long support building that extends to the left of the dome. The observatory is on a dry, brown mountain top with other mountains stretching into the distance.

August 25, 2021 - Rubin Observatory is pleased to share the news of a major initiative that will result in new software to analyze the datasets from Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The effort will be led by LSST Corporation member institutions Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Washington. The Community Science and Data Center (CSDC) at NSF's NOIRLab will collaborate with the team to make the software freely available to the entire astrophysics community.

A Formal Relationship: The Rubin Observatory Science Collaboration Federation Charter has been Ratified

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August 10, 2021 - The Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Science Collaborations (SCs) were created in 2006 by then-LSST Director Tony Tyson and the LSST Corporation Board, and since then the SCs have provided invaluable scientific expertise—and a lot of hard work—towards making the Rubin Observatory science vision a reality. Now, a new document has been ratified that formalizes the existence of the SCs and provides details about the relationship between the SCs and Rubin Observatory.

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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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