September 24, 2019 - The LSST Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA), which was built in Spain and shipped to Chile in August, 2019, has now successfully reached the summit. The enormous structure was disassembled into 26 pieces for transport, and each piece was wrapped in sturdy vinyl to protect it during shipping. The ship carrying the TMA cargo arrived in Coquimbo on September 7th and unloading began the same day—some pieces were placed on the dock, and a few were loaded directly onto the transport vehicles that would carry them to Cerro Pachón.

The TMA is the structure that will support LSST's mirrors and camera, and this complex assembly also includes the many subsystems necessary for operation of the telescope. It was designed by GHESA Ingeniería y Tecnología, S.A., and constructed by Asturfeito, S.A. over approximately two years. A time-lapse video of the construction project, which condenses the activity into just three minutes and illustrates the size and complexity of the TMA, can be viewed at this link.

Getting the TMA cargo to the summit took a fleet of nine trucks and twelve trailers, operated by transport company Javier Cortes, S.A. Over the span of a week, the vehicles moved the cargo in several convoys from the port of Coquimbo to the summit.. As with other large LSST cargo items, like the Coating Chamber and the Primary/Tertiary Mirror (M1M3), LSST worked with local officials to identify and remove obstacles along the route, and local police provided escorts for the convoys with oversized cargo.

Despite the fact that LSST has completed similar oversized cargo transports in the last year, Jacques Sebag, Telescope and Site AIV Manager for LSST, commented, “In a way, this was the most complicated transport we’ve done because of the number of pieces—including large ones—and the time available.” After its arrival in port, the team only had about a week to move all 26 pieces of the TMA to the summit before the start of a Chilean national holiday period, during which large transport vehicles are not permitted to circulate.

On the night of Friday, September 13, the top end assembly of the TMA was transported through the Puclaro tunnel, the narrowest point on the route, located a short distance from the base of the mountain. Two sections of the top end had been removed to ensure the cargo would fit through. Once out of the tunnel, the LSST and Javier Cortes teams took a moment to celebrate the fact that all the oversized pieces of the telescope have now been transported safely through town, and through this tunnel! Jacques Sebag remarks that “the success of this operation is possible because of the support and cooperation of the many people involved, and we are grateful.”

Now that the wrapped pieces of the TMA are all safely on the summit, prep work for reassembly of the TMA on the telescope pier is currently underway—this includes preparation of the pier and scheduling of the cranes that will move the heavy equipment into place. Reassembly of the TMA by personnel from GHESA and Asturfeito is scheduled to begin after this work is complete, and will also be influenced by other activities happening simultaneously, such as ongoing work on the LSST Dome. 

PROJECT & SCIENCE NEWS - NOTICIAS DEL PROYECTO Y LA CIENCIA

A reminder, Daylight Saving Time began in Chile on September 8th; there is now a 4-hour difference between official LSST Project Time (Pacific Standard Time) and the time in Chile. 

A Joint Status Review of LSST by its funding agencies, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the US Department of Energy (DOE), was held in Tucson, AZ on August 27-30. Following the review, LSST Project Manager Victor Krabbendam acknowledged the hard work done by the Project team in successfully representing accomplishments and demonstrating problem-solving abilities. Subsystems are currently drafting responses to the review committee’s recommendations. A photo from the closeout report presentation is available in the LSST Gallery.

The ship carrying the major components of the LSST Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) arrived in Coquimbo, Chile on September 7th. TMA Technical Manager Shawn Callahan and LSST Principal Surveyor Michael Logue, assisted by staff in Chile, oversaw unloading of the cargo; preparations are now underway for transport of the major pieces to Cerro Pachón. Photos of the ship’s arrival and unloading of the cargo in port are available in the LSST Gallery.

At SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the ninth Raft Tower Module (RTM) has now been installed in the camera cryostat (photo at this link), marking the completion of the first phase of focal plane integration.

On Cerro Pachón, the LSST all-sky camera saw first light on September 3rd. This camera, installed on calibration hill near the Auxiliary Telescope, will monitor the entire sky every minute of the night, mapping the transparency of the sky (i.e. clouds) to give instant feedback to the LSST Scheduler on where to point the telescope in the sky for efficient survey observations. An image of the sky taken by the all-sky camera is available in the LSST Gallery. 

The LSST Operations team participated officially for the first time at the LSST 2019 Project and Community Workshop. The pre-operations phase of LSST began this fiscal year and will continue until operations begin (October 1, 2022). The Operations team held a breakout session to solicit input from the community on the current plan for serving data during commissioning. This well-attended session also covered aspects of the new funding model, including in-kind contributions for international participants and data rights policy. Community input was received both during and after the session; a link to notes is available here. The Operations team will provide updates on in-kind contributions and data rights in the coming weeks.

The LSST Science Advisory Committee (SAC) met on August 12, during the LSST 2019 Project and Community Workshop. Topics discussed included the future role of the SAC during operations, the role of the SAC and the science collaborations in helping assess proposals for in-kind contributions from international partners, the status of the Operations Simulator experiments the SAC had previously recommended, and the plans for proposals for community event brokers. The full minutes from the meeting are available at this link. 

The LSST Data Management team previously announced a LSST Algorithms Workshop to be held December 3-5 2019 at SLAC. They are delighted to have received strong interest in this workshop from both across the LSST Project and the community. As ideas for this workshop matured however, they realized they needed more time to fully develop the workshop plan. Consequently, they have decided to move this workshop to Spring 2020, to be held at either Princeton or SLAC. Precise dates and venue will be announced shortly.

INFORMATION FOR PROJECT MEMBERS

Visitors without LSST credentials traveling to the LSST summit who require network access for any device (computer, phone, etc.) must register these devices in advance by filling out the form at this link. Once a device has been registered, it does not need to be re-registered for future trips to the summit. 

PERSONNEL NEWS

Current job openings with LSST are available on the LSST hiring website. 

UPCOMING MEETINGS with LSST INVOLVEMENT

(those with asterisk* are LSSTC funded):

NOTICIAS DEL PROYECTO Y LA CIENCIA

Un recordatorio: el horario de verano comenzó en Chile el 8 de septiembre; ahora hay una diferencia de 4 horas entre la hora oficial del Proyecto LSST (hora estándar del Pacífico) y la hora en Chile. 

Una Revisión Conjunta del Estado de LSST se realizó del 27 al 30 de agosto en Tucson, AZ por parte de sus agencias de financiadoras, la Fundación Nacional de Ciencias (NSF) y el Departamento de Energía de los Estados Unidos (DOE). Después de la revisión, el Gerente del Proyecto LSST, Victor Krabbendam, reconoció el arduo trabajo realizado por el equipo del Proyecto en presentar exitosamente los logros y demostrar las habilidades para resolver problemas. Los subsistemas actualmente están redactando respuestas a las recomendaciones del comité de revisión. Una foto de la presentación del informe de cierre está disponible en la Galería de LSST LSST Gallery.

El barco que transportaba los componentes principales del Montaje de Telescopio LSST (TMA) llegó a Coquimbo, Chile, el 7 de septiembre. Shawn Callahan, Gerente Técnico de TMA, y Michael Logue, Inspector Principal de LSST, asistido por personal en Chile, supervisaron la descarga de la carga; Los preparativos están en marcha para el transporte de las piezas principales a Cerro Pachón. Las fotos de la llegada del barco y la descarga de la carga en el puerto están disponibles en la Galería de LSST LSST Gallery.

En SLAC Laboratorio Nacional de Aceleradores, el noveno Módulo de la Torre (RTM) se ha instalado en el criostato de la cámara (foto en este enlace link), marcando la finalización de la primera fase de integración del plano focal.

En Cerro Pachón, la cámara todo-cielo de LSST vio la primera luz el 3 de septiembre. Esta cámara, instalada en el cerro de calibración cerca del Telescopio Auxiliar, monitoreará todo el cielo cada minuto de la noche, mapeando la transparencia del cielo (por ejemplo, las nubes) para dar retroalimentación instantánea al Programador de LSST sobre dónde apuntar el telescopio en el cielo para observaciones eficientes. Una imagen del cielo tomada por la cámara todo-cielo está disponible en la Galeria de LSST LSST Gallery. 

El equipo de Operaciones de LSST participó oficialmente por primera vez en el Taller de Proyecto y Comunitario LSST 2019. La fase previa a las Operaciones de LSST comenzó este año fiscal y continuará hasta que comiencen las operaciones (1 de octubre, 2022). El equipo de Operaciones llevó a cabo una sesión para solicitar aportes a la comunidad sobre el plan actual para servir datos durante la puesta en servicio. Esta sesión con gran asistencia, también abarcó aspectos del nuevo modelo de financiamiento, incluyendo contribuciones de los participantes internacionales y la política de derechos de datos. Se recibió información de la comunidad durante y después de la sesión; un enlace a las notas está disponible aquí here. El equipo de Operaciones proporcionará información actualizada sobre las contribuciones y los derechos de datos en las próximas semanas.

El Comité Asesor de Ciencias de LSST (SAC) se reunió el 12 de agosto, durante el Taller del Proyecto y Comunitario LSST 2019. Los temas discutidos incluyeron el papel de SAC en el futuro durante las operaciones, el papel de SAC y las colaboraciones científicas para ayudar a evaluar las propuestas de contribuciones de los socios internacionales, el estado de los experimentos del Simulador de Operaciones que el SAC había recomendado previamente y los planes de propuestas para agentes comunitarios. Las minutas completas de la reunión están disponibles en este enlace link. 

El equipo de Gestión de Datos de LSST anunció previamente un Taller de Algoritmos de LSST que se llevará a cabo del 3 al 5 de diciembre, 2019 en SLAC. Están encantados de haber recibido tan fuerte interés en este taller, tanto a través del Proyecto LSST y la comunidad. Sin embargo, a medida que las ideas para este taller maduraron, se dieron cuenta que necesitaban más tiempo para desarrollar plenamente el plan de taller. En consecuencia, se ha decidido re agendar este taller para la primavera de 2020, que se realizará en Princeton o SLAC. Las fechas precisas y el lugar se anunciarán pronto.

INFORMACIÓN PARA MIEMBROS DEL PROYECTO

Los visitantes sin credenciales de LSST que viajan al sitio de LSST que requieren acceso a la red para cualquier dispositivo (computadora, teléfono, etc.) deben registrar estos dispositivos con anticipación completando el formulario en este enlace link. Una vez que se ha registrado un dispositivo, no es necesario volver a registrarlo para futuros viajes al sitio. 

NOTICIAS DE PERSONAL

Las ofertas de trabajo actuales con LSST están disponibles en el sitio web website de contratación de LSST. 

PRÓXIMAS REUNIONES CON PARTICIPACIÓN DE LSST 

(aquellas con asterisco * son financiadas por LSSTC):

PROJECT & SCIENCE NEWS - NOTICIAS DEL PROYECTO Y DE LA CIENCIA

More than 300 participants attended the 2019 LSST Project and Community Workshop, an opportunity for LSST Project and Science Community members to network, share progress, and discuss upcoming challenges. Read more about LSST 2019, held August 12-16 in Tucson, AZ, at this link. A high-resolution version of the team photo taken at the workshop is available in the LSST Gallery.

A new video promoting LSST premiered during the welcome plenary at LSST 2019. The video features footage collected from attendees at LSST 2018 as part of an ongoing Education and Public Outreach project called “StoryTime Domain.”  The video can be viewed on YouTube or downloaded from the LSST Gallery. 

The LSST Science Advisory Committee (SAC) has reviewed the Letters of Intent that were submitted for developing community event brokers for LSST. Based on the high quality and varied science goals of these letters, all letter-writers are encouraged to submit full proposals. The project plans to issue the formal call for proposals late this calendar year. We anticipate the full proposals to be due in the second quarter of 2020; they will be evaluated by a subcommittee of the SAC.  

The LSST Data Management (DM) team has organized and published “LSST Answers to Community Broker FAQs,” which provides answers to questions posed by broker developers and the science community at the June 2019 LSST Community Brokers Workshop. The DM team welcomes additional questions or comments at the same link.

The L1L2 assembly, which incorporates of two of the three LSST Camera lenses, was received at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory on August 15th, and initial inspections revealed no issues. The L1L2 assembly was constructed by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation (BATC) and Arizona Optical Systems (AOS), and was shipped from Tucson, AZ. The third lens (L3) will soon undergo a final acceptance review at Thales SESO (TSESO) in France and is expected to ship to SLAC in September.

Also at SLAC, the LSST Camera Integration and Test (I&T) team continues to integrate production rafts with the Camera cryostat at the SLAC IR2 Cleanroom Facility. So far, I&T has installed the four Corner Raft Tower Modules (CRTMs) and four Raft Tower Modules (RTMs). Photos of the installation progress are available at this link. The I&T team will install another five RTMs during this first phase of focal plane integration, which is expected to be completed in early September. I&T will install the remaining 12 RTMs in a second phase of integration, which is expected to continue into the fourth quarter of calendar year 2019.

On Cerro Pachón, the Primary/Tertiary Mirror (M1M3) surrogate has been integrated with the M1M3 cell on the M1M3 transport cart in the LSST Summit Facility building. The mirror surrogate is a steel structure that simulates the mass and center of gravity of the glass M1M3 mirror, and will be used for testing of the mirror support and control systems during integration of the M1M3 mirror cell assembly, as well as initial on-telescope testing. Photos of the integrated cell, surrogate, and transport cart are available in the LSST Gallery.

PERSONNEL NEWS

Jeffrey Urban joined the Telescope and Site subsystem as Opto-Mechanical Integration Lead on August 12. Jeffrey will be working in Tucson with frequent travel to Chile. He will be providing supervision of the technicians involved in the assembly, installation, operation, and maintenance of the M1M3 cell assembly. 

LSST has several exciting positions available—current openings can be found on the LSST hiring website. Help spread the word! 

UPCOMING MEETINGS with LSST INVOLVEMENT

(those with asterisk* are LSSTC funded):

NOTICIAS DEL PROYECTO Y DE LA CIENCIA

Más de 300 participantes asistieron al Taller del Proyecto y Comunitario LSST 2019, una oportunidad para que los miembros del Proyecto LSST y de la Comunidad Científica se relacionen, compartan el progreso y discutan los próximos desafíos. Lea más sobre LSST 2019, llevado a cabo del 12 al 16 de agosto en Tucson, AZ, en este enlace link. Una versión de alta resolución de la foto del equipo tomada en el taller está disponible en la Galería de LSST LSST Gallery.

Un nuevo video que promociona LSST se estrenó durante la sesión plenaria de bienvenida en LSST 2019. El video presenta imágenes recopiladas de los asistentes a LSST 2018 como parte de un proyecto en curso de Educación y Difusión Publica llamado "Story Time Domain". El video se puede ver en YouTube o para descargar desde la Galería de LSST LSST Gallery. 

El Comité Asesor de Ciencias (SAC) de LSST ha revisado las Cartas de Intención que se presentaron para desarrollar agentes de eventos comunitarios para LSST. Basándose en la alta calidad y los variados objetivos científicos de estas cartas, se anima a todos los escritores a presentar propuestas completas. El proyecto planea emitir la convocatoria formal de propuestas a fines de este año calendario. Anticipamos que las propuestas completas se recibirán en el segundo trimestre de 2020; serán evaluados por un subcomité del SAC.  

El equipo de Gestión de Datos (DM) de LSST ha organizado y publicado "Respuestas de LSST a las Preguntas Frecuentes de los Agentes Comunitarios" “LSST Answers to Community Broker FAQs,” que proporciona respuestas a las preguntas formuladas por los agentes desarrolladores y la comunidad científica en el Taller de Agentes Comunitarios de LSST LSST Community Brokers Workshop de junio, 2019 . El equipo de DM acepta preguntas o comentarios adicionales en el mismo enlace.

El ensamblaje L1L2, que incorpora dos de los tres lentes de la cámara LSST, se recibió en el Laboratorio Nacional de Aceleradores SLAC el 15 de agosto, y las inspecciones iniciales no revelaron problemas. El ensamblaje L1L2 fue construido por Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation (BATC) y Arizona Optical Systems (AOS), y fue enviado desde Tucson, AZ. El tercer lente (L3) pronto se someterá a una revisión de aceptación final en Thales SESO (TSESO) en Francia y se espera que se envíe a SLAC en septiembre.

También en SLAC, el equipo de Integración y Pruebas de la Cámara de LSST (I&T) continúa integrando módulos de producción con el criostato de la Cámara en la instalación de la Sala Limpia IR2 de SLAC. Hasta ahora, I&T ha instalado los cuatro Módulos Esquineros de Torre (CRTMs) y cuatro Módulos de Torre (RTMs). Las fotos del progreso de la instalación están disponibles en este enlace link. El equipo I& instalará otros cinco RTMs durante esta primera fase de la integración de plano focal, la cual se espera que esté terminada a principios de septiembre. I&T instalará los 12 RTMs restantes en una segunda fase de integración, que se espera que continúe hasta el cuarto trimestre del año calendario 2019.

En Cerro Pachón, el sustituto del espejo primario/terciario (M1M3) se ha integrado con la celda M1M3 en el carro de transporte M1M3 en el edificio de la Instalación del sitio LSST. El sustituto del espejo es una estructura de acero que simula la masa y centro de gravedad del espejo M1M3 de vidrio, y se utilizará para probar el soporte del espejo y los sistemas de control durante la integración de la celda del espejo M1M3, así como también pruebas iniciales del telescopio. Fotos de la celda, sustituto y el carro de transporte integrados están disponibles en el la Galería de LSST LSST Gallery.

NOTICIAS DE PERSONAL

Jeffrey Urban se unió al subsistema de Telescopio and Sitio como líder de integración opto-mecánica el 12 de agosto. Jeffrey trabajará en Tucson con frecuentes viajes a Chile. Supervisará a los técnicos involucrados en el ensamblaje, instalación, operación y mantenimiento del ensamblaje de la celda M1M3. 

LSST tiene varios puestos interesantes disponibles: las vacantes actuales se pueden encontrar en el sitio web de contratación de LSST website.  Ayuda a difundir la información! 

PRÓXIMAS REUNIONES CON PARTICIPACIÓN DE LSST 

(aquellas con asterisco * están financiadas por LSSTC ):

August 26, 2019 - More than 300 participants attended this year's LSST Project and Community Workshop, an annual meeting that brings together LSST Project staff, affiliates, and members of the science community to celebrate successes, report progress, and discuss upcoming challenges. This year’s meeting, held August 12-16 at the Hilton El Conquistador resort in Tucson, AZ, also offered ample opportunities for participants to interact outside of formal sessions, with early-morning soccer matches and board game nights bookending each day of the meeting.

Based on the success of last year’s program, the LSST Corporation sponsored 24 student interns to attend this year’s meeting. During Monday’s plenary session, students took turns presenting 30-second summaries of their research projects and invited attendees to bring their questions and comments to the student poster session scheduled for that evening. Photos of the poster session and a group photo are available at this link.

Tuesday’s morning plenary session featured a presentation by LSST Chief Scientist Tony Tyson on the effects of low Earth orbit satellite constellations on LSST images, followed by overview talks by representatives from four of the eight LSST Science Collaborations: Solar System, Galaxies, Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), and Transients and Variable Stars (TVS). After a full day of breakout sessions, workshop participants enjoyed a reception on Tuesday evening, gathering for food, music, and conversation as the summer day cooled down.

Wednesday’s morning plenary began with a popular feature of recent meetings, a series of “Lightning Talks” by LSST Project team members. These 5-minute talks give the invited speakers a venue to share information about their roles in the project as well as their personal hobbies and interests. The talks often feature entertaining anecdotes and photos, and are always identified as a highlight of the workshop. After Lightning Talks, representatives from the remaining four Science Collaborations gave overview talks: Stars, Milky Way, and the Local Volume; Dark Energy; Information and Statistics; and Strong Lensing.

The Thursday plenary featured more Lightning Talks followed by a presentation on Commissioning and Verification for LSST. Chuck Claver, LSST Systems Engineering and Commissioning Manager, and Sandrine Thomas, Telescope and Site Subsystem Scientist, shared progress reports and the upcoming schedule for Commissioning efforts. The talk concluded with a request for volunteers: students or seasoned professionals willing to offer their time and expertise to the Commissioning effort in exchange for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work directly with the LSST system as it is assembled and tested on Cerro Pachón.

A workshop on Difference Imaging Analysis (DIA) was held in parallel with the meeting’s breakout sessions on Tuesday and Thursday. The DIA workshop offered an opportunity for LSST Science Community and Project members to address challenges related to a key theme of LSST’s mission: exploring the changing sky. Topics addressed during the two-day workshop included technical discussions of image subtraction, object classification, and community expectations of the planned LSST data products.

A public talk on Thursday evening, titled LSST and Black Holes, featured Feryal Ozel, Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at The University of Arizona, and Raffaella Margutti, Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy from Northwestern University. The speakers discussed recent black hole discoveries and what might be revealed when LSST begins its ten-year survey. LSST Project Manager Victor Krabbendam also gave an overview and status update on LSST Construction, highlighting the many milestones reached over the past year. An article promoting the talk in the Arizona Daily Star and an item that aired on KGUN-9 television helped drive attendance to this event—more than 300 people were estimated to be in the audience.

The dates for the LSST 2020 Project and Community Workshop were announced at the closing plenary on Friday; next year’s meeting will take place August 10-14 in Tucson. The venue for next year’s workshop will be announced when it is confirmed.
 

August 20, 2019 - The LSST Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA), one of the last large components of the telescope to be shipped to Chile this year (the LSST Camera will be shipped in 2020), set sail from Spain at the end of July aboard a vessel named Lisa Auerbach.

On the morning of July 27th, the team responsible for overseeing the loading of the ship arrived at the port of Aviles, Spain, near the Asturfeito factory where the TMA was constructed. Shawn Callahan, LSST TMA Technical Manager; and Michael Logue, LSST Principal Surveyor, were present for the loading, as well as Asturfeito's Francisco Romero, Construction Manager; and Pelayo Fernández, Project Engineer. The TMA, a structure much too large to ship as a whole unit, was disassembled into more manageable pieces at the Asturfeito factory over the last few months. The attached photo shows some of the pieces of cargo prior to loading.

The ship's hold was clean and freshly painted, but damp from recent rains. By mid-morning, however, the hold was dry and ready to receive the cargo. A crew of port stevedores, contracted by Asturfeito, rigged the pieces of cargo on land. Then each load was lifted into the ship's hold, where another crew of stevedores placed and secured it. According to Shawn Callahan, "The stevedores were all about speed, while the four of us were doing our best to make sure nothing got damaged—we split up our team to carefully monitor the operation."

Preparations made on the previous day also ensured that the teams had some practice working with the bulky, oddly-shaped loads. Michael Logue pointed out that "The telescope offered a unique challenge, because almost every lift was a different, unusual shape. This crew has spent years installing mainly rectangular and round shapes, so our marine-wrapped pieces—which looked like huge flying bats and peacocks—were new."

It was an action-packed and sometimes stressful day, but in the end all 26 pieces of TMA cargo, weighing a total of 326.6 metric tons (360 tons), were loaded aboard securely and the ship departed the following day. The vessel will make just a couple of stops en route and is scheduled to arrive in Coquimbo in early September. You can track the ship's progress on this website (enter the ship's name, Lisa Auerbach, in the search bar) and be sure to watch this space for an announcement when it arrives!
 

Arizona Daily Star - https://tucson.com

August 9, 2019 - Earlier this summer, the LSST Project Office received a special delivery from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory: the commissioning camera for the full LSST Camera. This “miniature” 144-megapixel camera, referred to as ComCam, will be used to test the different systems that will eventually interact with the full 3200-megapixel LSST Camera, allowing LSST engineers and scientists to troubleshoot issues in advance of the full LSST Camera integration. ComCam will also produce valuable scientific preview data that will help the LSST Science Community as it prepares to do science with the much larger LSST data set during Operations.

So why is ComCam in Tucson? Now that it has arrived at the Tucson instrumentation shop, the ComCam cryostat assembly (built by SLAC) will be integrated with the camera optics and parts of the telescope structure and tested under software control as it will be in Chile. These optics include a field corrector consisting of three glass lenses, a three-position filter changer, and a camera shutter—all will be added to the camera. After that, ComCam will undergo several weeks of functional and performance testing, similar to the testing being performed on the full LSST Camera at SLAC. This will be the first time the hardware of ComCam is integrated with the observatory software (developed by Telescope and Site) and the Data Management systems, marking a significant integration of LSST’s three major subsystems. The observatory software created by the LSST Telescope and Site team is the software that controls the camera and coordinates with the other observatory systems. The Data Management systems, provided by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) in Illinois, will take the data from the camera and transmit it to NCSA for analysis. Once all of these systems are playing nicely together, the team will run through a simulated night of observations where software programs stand in for the major components of the LSST observatory—the dome, telescope, mirrors, etc. These software programs will communicate with ComCam the same way the actual components will on the summit; this test can be considered a "dress rehearsal" for the observing that will take place on Cerro Pachón once the ComCam arrives there.

In the fall, once these simulations and tests are completed, the entire instrument will be installed into a section of the telescope support structure that is designed to mimic the full-sized LSST Camera (having the same mass and center of gravity). After verifying that everything fits and is positioned properly, ComCam will be carefully packaged and shipped to Chile for an anticipated arrival in early 2020.  

PROJECT & SCIENCE NEWS - NOTICIAS DEL PROYECTO Y DE LA CIENCIA

We invite you to attend a free evening talk, “LSST and Black Holes,” on Thursday, August 15, during the LSST Project and Community Workshop. Featured speakers are LSST Project Manager Victor Krabbendam, University of Arizona astrophysicist Feryal Ozel, and Northwestern University’s Raffaella Margutti. Everyone is welcome and no registration is necessary. More information and speaker bios are available at this link.

After additional study, LSST has released an updated statement on the large-scale deployment of low Earth orbit satellite constellations. The updated wording can be found at this link.

The LSST Auxiliary Telescope (AuxTel) achieved engineering first light on the night of July 23rd, on Cerro Pachón, with all its system components (both hardware and control software) operational, and the telescope pointed at the sky. The AuxTel still has a number of outstanding items to be completed, but this initial on-sky testing indicated that things are on the right track. 

At SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the LSST Camera team has successfully inserted the four production corner rafts inside the cryostat, marking the official start of the focal plane integration. Nine science rafts will be inserted in the next couple of months, leading to an intermediate electro-optical test before the remaining rafts are installed.

On Cerro Pachón, the LSST Secondary Mirror (M2) received its first reflective coating on July 16th. Testing at the conclusion of the campaign confirmed that the mirror coating not only met, but exceeded reflectivity requirements. More details about the activity can be found in this recent news item.

The LSST Primary/Tertiary Mirror (M1M3) cell, which arrived on Cerro Pachón in mid-July, was successfully moved into the LSST observatory building on July 25th. The M1M3 cell (the steel structure that will support the mirror) was placed on rubber mats on the maintenance floor of the facility (photo at this link), but has since been moved onto the M1M3 transport cart. This milestone marks the beginning of the M1M3 cell and surrogate mirror integration on the summit.

The LSST Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) departed Spain for Chile aboard the vessel Lisa Auerbach on July 29th. The disassembled, marine-wrapped pieces of the TMA were loaded without damage despite the challenge presented by their unusual sizes and shapes. Photos from the ship loading are available in the LSST Gallery. The TMA is expected to arrive in Chile in early September.

The “Big Data - Small Planets” workshop, which brought together experts in the analysis of astronomical time series to discuss machine learning and big data challenges in exoplanet photometry, spectroscopy, and population synthesis was held in Israel on July 7-11. A full report on the workshop is available on the LSST Community Forum and a link to presentations is available on the workshop website.

PERSONNEL NEWS

Juan Lopez joined the Telescope and Site subsystem on August 1st as a mechanical integration technician. As a member of the summit Assembly, Integration, and Verification (AIV) team, he will provide support to mechanical activities for assembly and integration of telescope and site mechanical systems, starting with the M1M3 cell assembly. 

The LSST Education and Public Outreach team is now accepting applications for a Web Designer and a Web Developer. Additional opportunities with LSST, including IT Network Engineer, Software Engineer, Senior Software Engineer, and IT Systems Engineer are available on the LSST hiring website. Help us spread the word! 

UPCOMING MEETINGS with LSST INVOLVEMENT

(those with asterisk* are LSSTC funded):

NOTICIAS DEL PROYECTO Y DE LA CIENCIA

Los invitamos a asistir a una charla nocturna gratuita, "LSST y Los Agujeros Negros”, el jueves 15 de agosto, durante el Taller del Proyecto LSST y Comunitario. Los oradores destacados son el Gerente de Proyecto LSST, Victor Krabbendam, el astrofísico de la Universidad de Arizona, Feryal Ozel, y Raffaella Margutti de la Universidad Northwestern. Todos son bienvenidos y no es necesario registrarse. Más información y biografías de los oradores están disponible en este enlace link.

Después de un estudio adicional, LSST ha publicado una declaración actualizada sobre el despliegue a gran escala de las constelaciones de satélites de órbita terrestre. La redacción actualizada se puede encontrar en este enlace link.

El Telescopio Auxiliar de LSST (AuxTel) logró la primera luz de ingeniería la noche del 23 de julio en Cerro Pachón, con todos sus componentes del sistema (hardware y software de control) operativos, y el telescopio apuntó hacia el cielo. El AuxTel todavía tiene varios elementos pendientes por completar, pero esta prueba inicial del cielo indicó que las cosas van en el camino correcto. 

En SLAC Laboratorio Nacional de Aceleradores, el equipo de la cámara de LSST ha insertado exitosamente los cuatro módulos esquineros de producción dentro del criostato, marcando el inicio oficial de la integración del plano focal. Se insertarán nueve módulos científicos en los próximos meses, lo que conducirá a una prueba electroóptica intermedia antes de instalar los módulos restantes.

En Cerro Pachón, el espejo secundario (M2) de LSST recibió su primer recubrimiento reflectante el 16 de julio. Las pruebas al final de la campaña confirmaron que el recubrimiento de espejo no solo cumplió, sino que excedió los requisitos de reflectividad. Se pueden encontrar más detalles sobre la actividad en este artículo reciente news item.

La celda del espejo primario/terciario (M1M3) de LSST, que llegó a Cerro Pachón a mediados de julio, fue trasladada con éxito al edificio del observatorio LSST el 25 de julio. La celda M1M3 (la estructura de acero que soportará el espejo) fue posicionada sobre alfombras de goma en el piso de mantenimiento de la instalación (foto en este enlace link), pero se ha trasladado al carro de transporte M1M3 desde entonces. Este hito marca el comienzo de la integración de la celda M1M3 y el espejo sustituto en el cerro.

El Ensamblaje del Soporte del Telescopio LSST (TMA) partió de España hacia Chile a bordo del buque Lisa Auerbach el 29 de julio. Las piezas desensambladas y envueltas del TMA se cargaron sin daños a pesar del desafío presentado por sus tamaños y formas inusuales. Las fotos de la carga del barco están disponibles en la Galería LSST LSST Gallery. Se espera que el TMA llegue a Chile a principios de septiembre.

El taller “Grandes Datos – Pequeños Planetas”, que reunió a expertos en el análisis de series de tiempo astronómicos para discutir sobre el aprendizaje automático y los desafíos de los grandes datos en fotometría de exoplanetas, espectroscopía y síntesis de población, se llevó a cabo en Israel del 7 al 11 de julio. Un informe completo sobre el taller está disponible en el Foro de la Comunidad LSST LSST Community Forum y un enlace con las presentaciones está disponible en el sitio web website del taller.

NOTICIAS DE PERSONAL

Juan López se unió al subsistema de Telescopio y Sitio el 1 de agosto como técnico de integración mecánica. Como miembro del equipo de Ensamblaje, Integración y Verificación (AIV) del cerro, brindará apoyo a las actividades mecánicas para el ensamblaje y la integración de los sistemas mecánicos de telescopio y sitio, comenzando con el ensamblaje de la celda M1M3.  

El equipo de Educación y Difusión Pública de LSST ahora está aceptando postulaciones para un Diseñador Web Web Designer y un Desarrollador Web Web Developer. En el website sitio web de contratación de LSST se encuentran disponibles oportunidades adicionales con LSST, entre otros Ingeniero en Redes de TI, Ingeniero de Software, Ingeniero de Software Senior e Ingeniero de Sistemas de TI. ¡Ayúdanos a correr la voz! 

PRÓXIMAS REUNIONES CON PARTICIPACION DE LSST

(aquellas con asterisco * son financiadas por LSSTC):

LSST & BLACK HOLES

Thursday, August 15, 2019 @ 7:00 pm

Hilton El Conquistador Turquoise Ballroom
10000 North Oracle Road, Tucson, Arizona, 85704

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is approaching completion on the Cerro Pachón ridge in north-central Chile.  When science operations begin in 2022, LSST will scan the sky with the world’s largest digital camera, creating a 500 petabyte set of images and data products that will address the most pressing questions about the structure and evolution of the universe and the objects in it.  Among these objects are black holes, objects so dense they warp the fabric of space-time, objects whose incredible properties are only recently becoming known to us.  You are invited to join us for an evening of black hole science and learn about Tucson’s leadership role in LSST’s voyage of scientific discovery.

During this public event, LSST Project Manager Victor Krabbendam will provide an update on LSST construction progress, University of Arizona astrophysicist Feryal Özel will discuss the latest black hole discoveries from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) and Northwestern University’s Raffaella Margutti will describe what we have learned from the first multi-messenger observations of a neutron star merger with gravitational waves and light, and what might be revealed when LSST begins its ten-year survey.  

Speakers

Raffaella Margutti 
Northwestern University

Raffaella Margutti is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Northwestern University.  She utilizes observations of transient astrophysical phenomena including stellar explosions and stellar tidal disruptions by supermassive black holes.  She serves as the chair of the Gravitational Wave source follow-up with LSST within the LSST Transient and Variable Stars science collaboration.  As an astrophysicist, her research specifically focuses on the biggest explosions and disruptions that occur in our Universe: Supernovae, Gamma-Ray Bursts, compact stellar mergers that are sources of gravitational waves and tidal disruption events. Margutti investigates the physics of these events by combining broad-band observations across the electromagnetic spectrum, including X-ray, UV, optical, IR, and radio.  The primary goal of her research is to understand the nature of the physical processes that regulate such dramatic displays. 

Feryal Özel
University of Arizona

Feryal Özel is a Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics in the Department of Astronomy at University of Arizona. She has made pioneering contributions to the physics of neutron stars and black holes, as well as to the co-evolution of black holes and galaxies in the early Universe. Dr. Özel led the Model Comparison group for the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) that released the first image of a black hole in April of 2019. She made the first accurate measurements of the neutron star radii that constrain the ultradense matter equation of state. Based on her work on accretion flows, she made the first size predictions of the images of nearby supermassive black holes at different wavelengths.

Victor Krabbendam
AURA/LSST

Victor Krabbendam has been LSST Project Manager since 2012, after eight years as Project Manager for the LSST Telescope & Site subsystem. Trained as a mechanical engineer, Victor has worked in industry, government, and with major astronomical research facilities including the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory and the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope, a 4.1 meter telescope that is LSST's neighbor on Cerro Pachón.

July 30, 2019 - If shiny things get your attention, prepare to be dazzled by the newly coated LSST Secondary Mirror (M2)! The mirror received its first reflective coating on July 16, 2019, at the LSST summit facility building on Cerro Pachón. The 3.4-meter M2 mirror arrived on the summit in December 2018, after being shipped from Rochester, NY, where it was fabricated by L3Harris (formerly Harris Corporation). Since its arrival the container holding the mirror has been stored inside the LSST observatory building, on the roof of the camera clean room. Until the coating campaign, the mirror hadn't been removed from the box, although careful inspections of all parts of the mirror were conducted to make sure no damage occurred during shipping.

The M2 surrogate (an aluminum structure that stands in for the glass mirror during testing) was used to test all coating parameters, with witness samples placed all around and over the mirror surrogate, first on May of this year and again a week before the glass M2 was placed into the coating chamber. After evaluating the results, the team determined that the performance of the coating plant, the coating parameters, and everything else was ready to coat the glass mirror.

It's critical to remove all dust and debris from the surface of the mirror before applying the coating, so on July 8th the M2 mirror was lifted from its storage container into a dedicated washing station, using the bridge crane installed over the coating area, and cleaned. Then the mirror was lifted into the coating chamber and the vacuum process was initiated. Overnight the chamber was evacuated to a vacuum level of 3 x 10-7 millibars and by the next morning conditions were perfect for coating the mirror.

The LSST Coating Chamber uses magnetron sputtering technology, a method that has proven successful with mirrors for other large telescopes including the twin Gemini Telescopes and the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope. There are two rings of magnetrons inside the LSST Coating Chamber: an inner ring that will be used to apply coatings to the M2 mirror and the M3 mirror, and an outer ring that will apply coatings to the 8.4-meter M1 mirror. In order to achieve the overall combination of durability and reflectivity necessary to achieve LSST's science goals over its ten-year survey lifetime, the M2 mirror was coated with protected silver, and the M1M3 mirror will be coated with protected aluminum.

Coating the M2 mirror took just over four hours and, according to LSST Senior Coating Engineer Tomislav Vucina, everything went smoothly throughout the process. The attached video shows the mirror being coated through a small window built into the coating chamber; the mirror is the stationary object in the center.

The coating team ran a series of tests at the conclusion of the coating process and found that reflectivity results, adhesion tests, and pinholes count not only met, but exceeded the requirements. With the M2 coating campaign successfully accomplished, the mirror was returned to its container and lifted back into its storage area, where it will be out of the way of other activities being performed on the maintenance level of the building. The mirror will be inspected every three months, to monitor the reflectivity and clean off dust, until it's time to integrate the glass mirror with the M2 cell assembly in 2021.