PROJECT & SCIENCE NEWS - NOTICIAS DEL PROYECTO Y CIENTIFICAS

The LSST Project Office wishes everyone a happy Thanksgiving holiday!

The LSST Coating Chamber arrived on the summit of Cerro Pachón on November 11, safely completing a 15-week journey from Deggendorf, Germany, where it was constructed. The 128-ton Coating Chamber has now been integrated into the summit facility. Photos of the Coating Chamber during shipping, and upon arrival at the summit, are available in the LSST Gallery.

The LSST Secondary Mirror (M2) System cargo was loaded aboard the BBC Challenger on November 12th at the port of Albany, NY. The ship departed for Chile the following day, heading back down the Hudson River. The vessel will travel nearly directly to the port of Coquimbo, Chile, and is due to arrive at the beginning of December. Preparations are underway to accommodate the mirror and associated cargo boxes on Cerro Pachón. Photos of M2 being loaded are available in the LSST Gallery.

The LSST Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) welcomes two new members: Meg Schwamb of Gemini Observatory, an expert on solar system astrophysics; and Stephen Smartt of Queen’s University Belfast, who studies supernovae. In addition, two long-term members of the SAC, Jason Kalirai and Renu Malhotra, are stepping down; we thank them for all their wonderful insights and hard work over the years!

The LSST Network Engineering Team (NET) conducted a successful network demonstration at the Supercomputing 2018 conference, held in Dallas, TX, November 12-15th.  Digital data was transferred via fiber optic networks from the Base Site in La Serena, Chile, to the LSST Data Facility at NCSA in Champaign, IL. A sustained data transfer rate of 80 Gigabits/second (Gbps) was achieved, with short periods at a peak rate of 100 Gbps. A real-time, web display of network performance was monitored live from the NCSA booth at the conference. Read more details at this link.

The Astronomical Data Analysis Software & Systems (ADASS) 2018 conference, which took place in College Park, MD, was attended by eight LSST project members, as well as representatives from IN2P3, France. Jim Bosch, LSST Data Management Data Release Processing Scientist, gave an invited talk about image processing pipelines. The LSST Communications Office also hosted a booth at the conference, providing information on construction progress and big data aspects of LSST.

PERSONNEL NEWS

Paulina Alcayaga joined the LSST Project Office as a bilingual administrative assistant on November 12. Paulina will be a member of the administrative team in Chile, providing administrative support for the Chilean office and staff.

UPCOMING MEETINGS with LSST INVOLVEMENT

(those with asterisk* are LSSTC funded):

NOTICIAS DEL PROYECTO Y CIENTIFICAS

¡La Oficina de Proyectos de LSST les desea a todos unas felices fiestas de Acción de Gracias!

La Cámara de Recubrimiento de LSST llegó a Cerro Pachón el 11 de Noviembre, completando de manera segura un viaje de 15 semanas desde Deggendorf, Alemania, donde fue construida. La Cámara de Recubrimiento de 128 toneladas ahora se ha integrado en la instalación de la cumbre. Las fotos del envio de la Cámara de Recubrimiento y al llegar a la cumbre, están disponibles en la Galería LSST.

El Sistema del Espejo Secundario (M2) se cargo en el BBC Challenger el 12 de Noviembre, en el puerto de Albany, NY. El barco partió para Chile al día siguiente, por el Río Hudson. El barco viajará casi directamente al puerto de Coquimbo, Chile, y llegará a principios de Diciembre. Se están realizando preparativos para acomodar el espejo y las cajas de carga asociadas en Cerro Pachón. Las fotos del M2 que se están cargando están disponibles en la Galería LSST.

El Comité Asesor Científico de LSST (SAC) da la bienvenida a dos nuevos miembros: Meg Schwamb, de Observatorio Gemini, experta en astrofísica del sistema solar; y Stephen Smartt, de la Universidad Queen en Belfast, que estudia supernovas. Además, dos miembros de largo plazo de SAC, Jason Kalirai y Renu Malhotra, están dejando el cargo; ¡Les agradecemos por todas sus maravillosas ideas y su arduo trabajo a lo largo de los años!

El Equipo de Ingeniería de Red LSST (NET) realizó una exitosa demostración de red en la conferencia Supercomputación 2018, que tuvo lugar en Dallas, TX, del 12 al 15 de Noviembre. Los datos digitales se transfirieron a través de redes de fibra óptica desde el sitio en La Serena, Chile, a la instalación de datos de LSST en NCSA en Champaign, IL. Se logró una tasa de transferencia de datos de 80 Gigabits/segundo (Gbps), con períodos cortos a una tasa máxima de 100 Gbps. Una pantalla web en tiempo real del rendimiento de la red fue monitoreada en vivo desde el stand de NCSA en la conferencia. Leer más detalles aquí.

La conferencia de Software y Sistemas de Análisis de Datos Astronómicos (ADASS) 2018, que tuvo lugar en el College Park, MD, asistieron ocho miembros del proyecto LSST, así como representantes de IN2P3, Francia. Jim Bosch, Científico de Proceso y Liberacion de Datos del grupo de Gestion de Datos LSST, dio una charla sobre los Procesos de Imagenes Pipelines. La Oficina de Comunicaciones LSST también organizó un stand en la conferencia, que brinda información sobre el progreso de la construcción y los aspectos de big data de LSST.

NOTICIAS DEL PERSONAL

Paulina Alcayaga se unió a la Oficina de Proyecto LSST como Asistente Administrativa Bilingüe el 12 de Noviembre. Paulina será miembro del equipo administrativo en Chile, brindando apoyo administrativo a la oficina y al personal de Chile.

PRÓXIMAS REUNIONES con LA PARTICIPACIÓN DE LSST

(aquellas con asterisco * son financiados por LSSTC):

November 20, 2018 - The LSST Network Engineering Team (NET) had a strong presence at the Supercomputing 2018 Conference (SC18) in Dallas, TX, last week, including a successful demonstration of the data transfer capabilities of the fiber optic networks that will be used during LSST operations. Digital data were transferred from the Base Site in La Serena, Chile, to the LSST Data Facility at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) in Champaign, IL. During the data transfer demonstration, a peak rate of 100 Gigabits/second (Gb/s) was achieved for short periods, and a sustained rate of 80 Gb/s was achieved over a three hour period, exceeding the test target. This test was run over links provisioned by several networking organizations: REUNA from La Serena to Santiago, FIU/Amlight from Santiago to Miami, SCInet from Miami to Chicago (Starlight), and NCSA from Chicago to Champaign. SCInet links provided by CenturyLink and internet2 were used to transfer the data from Miami to Chicago because LSST 100 Gb/s links will not be available in that path until FY20. All of the other links were those that will be used by LSST during operations.

Data Transfer Nodes (DTN) configured in La Serena and Champaign with nuttcp (a network performance measurement tool) generated a sustained memory-to-memory data rate over 80 Gb/s, over a period of three hours. Simultaneously, the DTNs, using the Fermilab Multicore-Aware Data Transfer Middleware (MDTM) software, achieved a peak of 36 Gb/s transferring 200 Gigabytes of DECam public data (FITS files) provided by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO). Note that in LSST operations, there will be over 20 DTNs (aka archiver/forwarders) simultaneously sending data, so each one will require far less than 36 Gb/s. In addition, on the Champaign end the files were ingested into a GPFS shared file system, and a Jupyter Notebook running an application provided by LSST Data Management was used to visualize the files. Finally, an additional test transfer from Champaign to La Serena is being conducted and has so far achieved a peak of 40 Gb/s, sufficient for the annual transfer of LSST Data Releases to Chile.

Instrumentation in the DTNs and links and Grafana software were used to provide a real-time, web display of network performance during the demonstration. This was monitored live from the NCSA booth at the Supercomputing 2018 Conference. A number of conference attendees witnessed the demonstration and presentation, and participated in a question and answer session.

According to LSST NET Lead Jeff Kantor, "This demonstration shows not only that we have continuity and performance from the network point of view, but also that all of the partners acted as a very well-coordinated engineering team for LSST."

Congratulations to the LSST NET SC18 Demonstration Team:

Albert Astudillo (REUNA)
Jeronimo Bezerra (FIU/AmLight)
Julio Ibarra (FIU/AmLight)
Sandra Jaque (REUNA)
Matt Kollross (UIUC/NCSA)
Ron Lambert (LSST/AURA)
Sean McManus (NOAO)
Wil O’Mullane (LSST/AURA)
Rodrigo Pescador (RNP)
Andres Villalobos (LSST/AURA)
Adil Zahir (FIU/AmLight)

Additional support was provided by a number of other people within these organizations. We are particularly grateful to SCInet, Starlight, and Fermilab for enabling this demonstration.

The LSST Camera, currently being assembled at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, was featured in this recent Gizmodo article.

November 12, 2018 - It looked a lot like a space ship before it was wrapped for shipping, but it’s actually a very earth-bound piece of cargo: the Coating Chamber for the mirrors of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). The Coating Chamber arrived on the summit of Cerro Pachón in Chile on November 11, 2018, and is now positioned on the service floor of the LSST summit facility building. The Coating Chamber and its associated equipment will share this level with the camera maintenance rooms, the vertical platform lift, and the shipping and receiving area. The Coating Chamber will be used to coat LSST’s mirrors when they arrive on Cerro Pachón, and to re-coat the mirrors periodically during Operations.

LSST will conduct a 10-year survey, and during this period its mirrors will be exposed to the elements each night as the telescope surveys the sky through the open side of the observatory dome. Over time the mirrors will get dusty, and the mirror coatings may develop small blemishes that eventually affect the telescope’s performance. To ensure that LSST continues to collect the sharpest possible images of the night sky, its mirrors will undergo periodic washing and recoating. It’s anticipated that the Primary/Tertiary Mirror (M1M3) will need to be recoated every two years, and the Secondary Mirror (M2) every five years, during the 10-year survey. Both the washing and recoating will be done inside the observatory; special equipment will be used to remove and transport the mirrors from the telescope to the washing station and coating chamber.

The 128-ton LSST Coating Chamber was constructed by Von Ardenne in Deggendorf, Germany. After final acceptance in June, 2018, Von Ardenne prepared the Coating Chamber for shipping, working closely with Michael Logue, Principal Surveyor for LSST. Logue is responsible for getting all the critical pieces of LSST safely to the summit of Cerro Pachón, and this is no simple task; LSST’s components have been under construction in factories and labs all across Europe and the U.S.

The Coating Chamber was loaded onto a river barge called the Modena on July 30, 2018. Despite challenges posed by low water levels on the Danube River, the barge arrived safely in Antwerp on August 14. Then, early in the morning on September 7, a heavy-duty mobile shore crane lifted the Coating Chamber aboard a ship named the BBC Arizona. The cargo then spent about six weeks at sea, traveling through the Panama Canal to reach Chile.

As Logue points out, getting large cargo items to Chile by sea is actually the “easy” part. The challenges multiply when it’s time to transport them from the dock at their arrival port to the summit of Cerro Pachón. After arriving at the Port of Coquimbo Terminal in Chile on October 23rd, it was divided into two parts, upper and lower, and transported by Javier Cortés, S.A. in specialized trucks from Coquimbo to the LSST summit facility on Cerro Pachón. The width of the cargo load was about 9 meters (29.5 feet), so this transport required cooperation between many parties to coordinate logistics, including the removal of hanging signs, utility cables, lights, etc. along the route. Local police provided an escort for the transport vehicles, and various administrative organizations assisted with road closures and permits to proceed. A map of the route is below.

One of the highlights of the trip was traveling through the Puclaro Tunnel, between La Serena and the AURA property gate. This tunnel has been a significant factor in the design of LSST; all of the telescope’s components must be able to fit—or must disassemble to fit—through the tunnel. The Coating Chamber’s halves are the widest pieces of LSST cargo that will pass through the tunnel, although not by much; the M1M3 Mirror in its transport box will be almost as wide a load. The attached photos show how little clearance the Coating Chamber had in the tunnel, but thanks to skilled operators and sound judgement from the LSST and Javier Cortés teams, the trucks passed through without incident.

The trucks carrying the Coating Chamber arrived on the summit of Cerro Pachón on Friday, November 9. Each truck was carefully backed down a sloping driveway to a roll-up door accessing the third level of the  LSST summit facility building, and the pieces of the Coating Chamber were unloaded and placed inside the building by a 60-ton crane.

According to Tomislav Vucina, LSST Coatings Engineer, "The LSST Coating Chamber will be the largest, most modern, and most powerful mirror coating mechanism used by any telescope in the world." Now that it has been successfully received on the summit of Cerro Pachón, it will undergo a six-month program of “assembly, integration, and commissioning,” which means that Vucina will oversee installation of all components of the Coating Plant, and the testing necessary to ensure that everything works the way it’s supposed to. After final acceptance, and after both LSST mirrors arrive, the Coating Chamber will be used to coat the Primary/Tertiary Mirror (M1M3) with aluminum, and the Secondary Mirror (M2) with silver.

LSST thanks everyone involved in the many stages of transport for making the Coating Chamber move a success.

More photos of the Coating Chamber during construction and shipping, and after its arrival in Chile, are available in the LSST Gallery.

View the press release for the arrival of the Coating Chamber on Cerro Pachón here.

PROJECT & SCIENCE NEWS - NOTICIAS DEL PROYECTO & CIENTIFICAS

A reminder: daylight saving time ended in the U.S. on Sunday, November 4th. The LSST Project uses Pacific Time as a standard, but Arizona clocks do not change, and Chile is on a different time change schedule. As a result, standing meeting times have changed for people in some locations but not others; please check with your meeting organizer to confirm the times for upcoming meetings.

The deadline for the Call for White Papers on LSST Cadence Optimization is less than a month away; white papers must be submitted by November 30, 2018. Click here for more information.

The LSST Coating Chamber arrived at the Port of Coquimbo, Chile, on October 23rd, ending a seven-week ocean voyage that began in Antwerp, Belgium. For four days after its arrival, the Coating Chamber was prepared, split into two pieces (top and bottom), and loaded onto specialized transport vehicles for the trip to the summit of Cerro Pachón. Photos are available in the LSST Gallery.

On the morning of October 25th, at the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab on the University of Arizona campus, the LSST Primary/Tertiary Mirror (M1M3) was successfully lifted out of its transport container and onto the M1M3 Cell. Read more about this milestone and view a video of the lift in this recent news post.

The LSST Secondary Mirror (M2), which was recently completed in Rochester, NY, has begun its journey to Chile. The mirror and its associated components were loaded and secured onto three trailers on October 30th, and transported to the Port of Albany, NY. The trailers and cargo are currently in storage at the port, awaiting the arrival of theBBC Challenger, which is scheduled to arrive on November 11th. Photos of M2 traveling by truck from Rochester to Albany are available in the LSST Gallery.

The 50th Annual Meeting of the AAS Division of Planetary Sciences (DPS) was held in Knoxville, TN, on October 21-26. The LSST Solar System Science Collaboration (SSSC) held a workshop at the meeting, attended by approximately 55 people, that included status updates on LSST Project and SSSC activities. A photo of the workshop is available in the LSST Gallery, and presentations are linked from this page.

LSST CORPORATION NEWS

The LSST Corporation held an Institutional and Executive Board Meeting in Tucson, AZ, on October 24-25. In attendance were approximately 25 Board Members, International Contributors, LSST Corporation and Project representatives, and other stakeholders. The two-day meeting included a Project update from LSST Director Steve Kahn and LSST Deputy Director Zeljko Ivezic, and a pre-operations and commissioning report from Acting LSST Operations Director Bob Blum. LSST Corporation mission-related updates and activities were presented that focused on LSST Operations and the Corporation’s Fund-Development Program.

PERSONNEL NEWS

Open positions available with LSST, including two Administrative Assistant positions, are listed at this link.

UPCOMING MEETINGS with LSST INVOLVEMENT 

(those with asterisk* are LSSTC funded): 

NOTICIAS DEL PROYECTO & CIENTIFICAS

Un recordatorio: el horario de verano terminó en Estados Unidos el domingo 4 de noviembre. El Proyecto LSST usa la Hora del Pacífico como estándar, pero los relojes de Arizona no cambian, y Chile está en un horario de cambio de hora diferente. Como resultado, los tiempos de reuniónes permanentes han cambiado para las personas en algunos lugares, pero no en otros; Por favor, consulte con el organizador de la reunión para confirmar los horarios de las próximas reuniones.

La fecha límite para la Convocatoria de Libros Blancos sobre Optimización de Cadencia LSST es en menos de un mes; los libros blancos deben enviarse antes del 30 de noviembre de 2018. Haga clic aquí para obtener más información.

La Cámara de Recubrimiento LSST llegó al Puerto de Coquimbo, Chile, el 23 de octubre, finalizando un viaje por el océano de siete semanas que comenzó en Amberes, Bélgica. Durante cuatro días después de su llegada, la Cámara de revestimiento se preparó, se dividió en dos partes (arriba y abajo) y se cargó en vehículos de transporte especializados para el viaje a la cima del Cerro Pachón. Las fotos están disponibles en la Galería LSST

En la mañana del 25 de octubre, en el laboratorio de espejos Richard F. Caris campus de la Universidad de Arizona, el espejo Primario / Terciario (M1M3) del LSST fue retirado con éxito de su contenedor de transporte y se llevó a la celda M1M3. Lea más sobre este hito y vea un video del trabajo de levante en esta reciente publicación de noticias.

El espejo secundario LSST (M2), que se terminó recientemente en Rochester, Nueva York, ha comenzado su viaje a Chile. El espejo y sus componentes asociados fueron cargados y asegurados en tres remolques el 30 de octubre, y transportados al Puerto de Albany, NY. Los remolques y la carga están actualmente almacenados en el puerto, a la espera de la llegada de la BBC Challenger, el cual está programado para llegar el 11 de noviembre. Las fotos de M2 ​​viajando en camión desde Rochester a Albany están disponibles en la Galería LSST.

La 50ª Reunión Anual de la División de Ciencias Planetarias (DPS) de AAS se celebró en Knoxville, TN, del 21 al 26 de octubre. El LSST Solar System Science Collaboration (SSSC) realizó un taller en la reunión, al que asistieron aproximadamente 55 personas, que incluyó actualizaciones de estado sobre el proyecto LSST y las actividades del SSSC. Una foto del taller está disponible en la Galería LSST, y las presentaciones están vinculadas desde esta página.

NOTICIAS DE LA CORPORACION LSST

La Corporación LSST celebró una reunión de la Junta Ejecutiva e Institucional en Tucson, AZ, del 24 al 25 de octubre. Asistieron aproximadamente 25 miembros de la Junta, colaboradores internacionales, representantes de LSST Proyecto y Corporación, y otras partes interesadas. La reunión de dos días incluyó una actualización del Proyecto por parte del Director de LSST, Steve Kahn y el Director Adjunto de LSST, Zeljko Ivezic, más un informe pre-operaciones y comisión de Director de Operaciones en funciones de LSST, Bob Blum. Se presentaron actualizaciones y actividades relacionadas con la misión de la Corporación LSST que se enfocaron en las Operaciones de LSST y el Programa de Desarrollo de Fondos de la Corporación.

NOTICIAS DEL PERSONAL

Las posiciones abiertas disponibles de trabajo con LSST, incluidas dos posiciones de Asistente Administrativo, se enumeran en este enlace.

PRÓXIMAS REUNIONES QUE INVOLUCRAN A LSST

(aquellas con asterisco * están financiadas por LSSTC):

One of the activities included in Factory Acceptance Testing of the Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) is installation and removal of the camera surrogate, a steel structure that approximates the mass of the LSST camera assembly, using the camera lifting fixture. The camera lifting fixture, like the TMA, was fabricated at the Asturfeito factory in Spain. Using a camera surrogate for these tests ensures that any issues arising during the installation or removal process can be addressed long before the real—and far more delicate—camera is integrated with the TMA in Chile. This video contains footage of the installation and removal of the surrogate camera using the camera lifting fixture.

Dr. Amanda Bauer, Head of EPO for LSST, was recently interviewed for the Cardiff University podcast Pythagorean Astronomy. The episode, in which she discusses the impact of LSST, can be accessed here.

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