Editor’s Notes

Suzanne Jacoby, Manager for EPO

Welcome to the third issue of the LSST E-News. This quarter has seen exciting progress with the mirror construction, the addition of new institutional members, and increasing opportunities for communication and participation with LSST.

I’ve just walked back from the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab (SOML) where lifting pads were fixed to the mirror blank in preparation for moving the monolithic glass from the oven hearth to the handling ring. Although this is the 4th 8-meter class telescope cast at the SOML, LSST’s record weight and unique primary/tertiary casting make it far from routine. The perfect casting of the mirror was publicized in an early September photo release featuring more than 60 well-dressed contributors to the LSST effort.

We’ve begun working with Interface Guru, a Tucson-based company that specializes in designing organized websites with effective user interfaces. To better serve public and technical users of lsst.org, the plan is to reorganize, relabel and revise existing content on lsst.org. This is being done to present a better outward face for LSST and to use lsst.org as a staging area, a placeholder site, for an anticipated implementation of a Content Management System (CMS).

We’ve approached this as an opportunity for professional development and team building throughout the project as we learn how to organize information and what our users expect from our public website. Expect preliminary changes at www.lsst.org by the end of October; implementation of the CMS and a more streamlined method of updating online information for all our primary audiences will follow.

Project Manager’s Corner

Don Sweeney, LSST Project Manager

The LSST 8.4 meter primary/tertiary mirror has emerged from the furnace at the University of Arizona. The Steward Observatory Mirror Lab (SOML) opened the oven on July 23 to reveal a beautifully cast M1M3 mirror. After the furnace was disassembled we all had a rare opportunity to walk around on the mirror surface — providing a number of great picture opportunities. In early September, SOML workers performed a test of the newly assembled lifting fixture and crane to ensure the 30 metric ton mirror and mirror mold can be safely lifted off of the furnace hearth. The lifting fixture utilizes 54 steel disks that are bonded to the front surface of the mirror with silicone adhesive. The mirror will be lifted from the hearth in the next few weeks and placed on its side to allow cleanout and processing of the backside of the mirror blank. These steps will be completed in spring 2009; next steps include backside finishing followed by polishing of the front surface. The completed mirror will be delivered in January 2012. Read more

FOCUS ON…

Simulating the Universe

How do you find out what LSST will see and how it will see it? Simulations. Although astronomers and optical engineers have been simulating images and operations for space telescopes and adaptive optics systems for years, no one has simulated how data will be used — until LSST. On other telescopes, observers do the data reduction. Because the LSST data will be available to all, LSST’s data management group will do the data reduction to make sure that data are correct before “observers” have access to them for study. The science studies that can be done are dependent on the design of the sky survey and the attendant operations of LSST — the subject of current simulation activities. “Working in concert with science collaborations, the data management group and design engineers, the simulations will help us design the robotic brain (the scheduler) of LSST,” promises Philip Pinto, LSST scientist leading the Simulation and Data effort. Read more

AURA and UCH Reach Innovative Agreement for LSST

The LSST will be built on Cerro Pachón, a mountain located on property owned by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA). AURA is permitted to operate telescopes in Chile because of an agreement reached with the Universidad de Chile (UCH) at the time Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory was established. AURA and UCH, in close consultation with LSST Corp. (LSSTC), have now extended that agreement to cover operations of the LSST. “The goal of all the parties engaged in the negotiation was to ensure that the principles for operation of the LSST would enable full participation of Chilean astronomers in all aspects of the LSST project from planning to analysis of the data,” says Sidney Wolff, LSSTC President. Read More

Student Labor on LSST: Summer 2008 REU and FaST Programs

Even years before first-light, LSST is able to provide opportunities to undergraduate students looking for scientific and engineering research experience. This summer LSST researchers mentored several students in the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program and through NSF supplemental funding to the LSST Design & Development award to support Faculty and Student Teams (FaST) at 3 LSST-affiliated institutions. Read more

Summer Workshop on Wide-Fast-Deep Surveys: New Astrophysics Frontiers

Scientists are sponsoring a summer workshop at the Aspen Center for Physics June 15-July 3, 2009. The Aspen Center for Physics, which has been a venue for creative informal workshops for the past 46 years, accepted the LSST proposal for Wide-Fast-Deep Surveys: New Astrophysics Frontiers this summer. The Aspen Center for Physics is a non-profit corporation funded by grants and contributions from NSF, DOE, NASA, foundations, corporations, government research laboratories, and individuals. Read more

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