News

April 24, 2020 - It's been just over a month since construction on Rubin Observatory stopped because of concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, and although we don't have a definite date when activities can resume, the Project team is busy making plans for how that can safely happen when it's time. In the meantime, since the shutdown began we've been sending small teams (using all the appropriate precautions and safety measures) to Cerro Pachón about every two weeks to inspect the facilities and equipment on the summit and perform necessary maintenance tasks. The workers travel to the summit in individual vehicles, and only those whose expertise is essential to completing that day's list of pre-arranged tasks make the trip.

Informal joint public statement.

We are pleased to share with you some news on the interaction between Vera C. Rubin Observatory and the Euclid Consortium. We believe, and hope you will agree, that both the Rubin Observatory and Euclid science communities would benefit from the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) and Euclid datasets being jointly processed to produce shared “derived data products” (DDPs). To make progress towards this goal we are establishing a joint DDP working group, the DDP-WG, that will recommend a science-driven initial set of DDPs which would be shared promptly and simultaneously with both the Euclid Consortium and all Rubin Observatory LSST data rights holders for scientific use, in a way that protects the unique science of each collaboration and respects the data policies of each collaboration. We expect the DDP-WG will take broad input from both science communities in establishing the recommended DDPs.

While the DDP-WG will not be the group that will decide who makes the DDPs, where they are made, how they are made, or what funding mechanism will pay for that effort, the idea is that this initial set of DDPs, if approved, would form the basis of a Letter of Intent signed by both Rubin Observatory and Euclid leadership to actually create those DDPs. The DDP-WG would then remain a science-focused, standing committee that would recommend further DDPs as both the Euclid and LSST surveys progress.

Given the data and publication policies of both Rubin Observatory and the Euclid Consortium, a collaborative agreement between the two groups is the only way that such joint derived data products can be made and then shared back to either of the two groups for publication during the respective proprietary periods. There is still much work to be done to find a set of DDPs that are mutually and equally beneficial to both communities - but we are confident we can set up a DDP-WG to succeed at this task.

Our next steps are to appoint and charge this working group; we have in mind asking it to hold a virtual workshop within the next 6 months in order to help collect the input it will need from both science communities. This workshop would be open to the larger Euclid and Rubin Observatory communities, not just the DDP-WG. Stay tuned for more information on, and from, the DDP-WG as it gets started, and please don’t hesitate to get in touch with comments, questions, and suggestions, either in the public comments on community or privately, at https://www.lsst.org/scientists/contacts.

Yours in wide-field survey astronomy,

Bob, Yannick, Phil & Jason

February 6, 2020 - The Commissioning Camera for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is still in the lab at the Rubin Observatory Project Office in Tucson, AZ, where it arrived in June 2019. But it won't be there much longer; it’s undergoing a near-final phase of testing before being packed for shipping to Chile (currently scheduled for late February). The Commissioning Camera, or ComCam, is a much smaller version of the Rubin Observatory LSST Camera (LSSTCam) with about 1/20 of the collecting area that will be used to test the different systems that will interact with the full science camera during Rubin Observatory Operations. 

Electro-optical testing of ComCam was conducted in the fall of 2019, and now software testing is underway. In mid-January, 2020, the ComCam optical system was successfully integrated with the “quad box,” which contains the utilities necessary to operate the camera. An additional set of utilities, currently at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, will be added once the instrument is in Chile. This will constitute the “Refrigeration Pathfinder, which will allow ComCam to condition and demonstrate the custom-made refrigeration system on the telescope before LSSTCam is installed. Next, the structure will be integrated with a mass simulator, which is currently being fabricated in the instrumentation shop at the Rubin Observatory Project Office in Tucson. The mass simulator will allow ComCam to be mechanically integrated with the telescope and used for testing on Cerro Pachón.

The final milestone that must be achieved before the camera is readied for shipping is a full execution of the hardware and software interface system—basically a rehearsal of every step involved in producing an image with ComCam on sky. From the control software that allows for coordinated operation of the camera, to the pipelines that read out the camera data and send it to the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) in Illinois for processing; the whole procedure must be tested and verified in Tucson before the camera is packed for shipping. The mass simulator will go to Chile by ship, but the more delicate pieces will travel by air. They will be accompanied by sensors that monitor environmental factors like temperature, humidity, and motion, and the data collected will be used to plan the shipment of LSSTCam from SLAC to Chile in 2021.

Watch this space—we plan to share one of the first images produced by ComCam before the camera ships. It won’t be an image of the sky, but it will show that the camera is ready for action!

2019 was an action-packed year for the LSST Project, with new milestones reached and more equipment arriving at the LSST summit facility on Cerro Pachón from all around the world. Here’s a review of some of the accomplishments LSST celebrated during the last twelve months: