LSST E-News |
LSST at IPS: Bridge to New Beginnings
Informal learning centers, including planetaria and science museums, reach a large audience: tens of millions of annual visitors in the US and more than 100 million worldwide. LSST will work with content providers at these institutions to share discoveries and high resolution images with their audiences, an effort that begins with an understanding of their needs. To that end, Suzanne Jacoby, Tim Axelrod (LSST), Mark Subbarao (Adler), and Martin Ratcliffe (Sky-Skan), presented a panel discussion about LSST at the International Planetarium Society Conference in Baton Rouge, LA, July 22 -26, 2012. There were ~750 individuals attending the week-long conference of which ~45% were from foreign countries.
Approximately 30 people came to the LSST session; they represented planetariums large and small as well as companies that provide hardware and software to the planetarium community. After a general description of LSST, we had a mutually informative discussion about the use of data in digital planetaria and a questionnaire to capture ideas from the audience. Our survey asked participants to identify what they considered the most interesting aspects of LSST as well as potential challenges. Recurring answers are summarized in the bullets below. Next steps include maintaining contact with interested participants and documenting these ideas and data needs in the Education and Outreach Plan for LSST during construction and operations.
Interesting aspects:
- Accessibility of data enables Citizen Science programming which could be integrated into kiosks or dome programming.
- Technical aspects of LSST are interesting: optical design, database design
- Ability to browse and search data
- The Adopt-a-Patch interface, monitoring and personalizing a piece of the LSST sky
- Could use introductory videos now with content that could be integrated into existing programming
- “Hot off the press” information is exciting, opening of the time domain
Challenges:
- Requirements for data access: bandwidth, disk space, format, etc.
- Desire for direct access to LSST scientists
- Need to combine bright object sky with the LSST sky
- Need interpretation of data, or background information for presenting to public
- Adopting for smaller planetariums with limited resources
- Correlation of LSST data with other surveys would add value
- Need ready to use presentation materials for big news items
Article written by Suzanne Jacoby
LSST is a public-private partnership. Funding for design and development activity comes from the National Science Foundation, private donations, grants to universities, and in-kind support at Department of Energy laboratories and other LSSTC Institutional Members:
Adler Planetarium; Argonne National Laboratory; Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL); California Institute of Technology; Carnegie Mellon University; Chile; Cornell University; Drexel University; Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; George Mason University; Google, Inc.; Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Institut de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules (IN2P3); Johns Hopkins University; Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) – Stanford University; Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, Inc.; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL); National Optical Astronomy Observatory; National Radio Astronomy Observatory; Princeton University; Purdue University; Research Corporation for Science Advancement; Rutgers University; SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; Space Telescope Science Institute; Texas A & M University; The Pennsylvania State University; The University of Arizona; University of California at Davis; University of California at Irvine; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; University of Michigan; University of Pennsylvania; University of Pittsburgh; University of Washington; Vanderbilt University
LSST E-News Team:
- Suzanne Jacoby (Editor-in-Chief)
- Anna Spitz (Writer at Large)
- Robert McKercher (Staff Writer)
- Mark Newhouse (Design & Production: Web)
- Emily Acosta (Design & Production: PDF/Print)
- Sidney Wolff (Editorial Consultant)
- Additional contributors as noted
LSST E-News is a free email publication of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Project. It is for informational purposes only, and the information is subject to change without notice.
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