Introduction

Construction milestones continue to be met on the summit of Cerro Pachón. The image on the right shows the successful outcome of the installation of the Top-End Assembly (TEA).

The Rubin Observatory has released a video on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOaS8jzkTMI - following the TEA installation, accompanied by suitably stirring music.

The Telescope Mount Assembly now just needs to have the camera mass surrogate installed and it will be complete, allowing a variety of tests before the eventual arrival of the camera itself.

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(Credit: Rubin Obs/NSF/AURA)

Meanwhile, a milestone was reached in the camera construction, with the arrival at SLAC of the first filter, that for the r band (pictured right).

Each filter is almost 80cm in diameter and weighs about 40kg. Before arrival at SLAC for eventual integration into the camera, the filters each undergo a journey that takes them to France for the shaping and polishing of the substrate, followed by coating and installation in their individual frames at different locations in the US.

The remaining five filters - for the u, g, i, z and y bands - are due to arrive in SLAC in the next few months, after which all six will be loaded into the filter exchanger by the end of 2021.

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The camera is due to be shipped to Chile early in 2022.

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(Credit: Travis Lange/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)Tational Accelerator a

Finally, the Observatory has released another YouTube video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41_VUIPwWAk - that summarises a decade of construction on Cerro Pachón in 80 seconds, to the accompaniment of a rather jauntier ditty than that chosen for the TEA installation video.

Those with ideas for future newsletter items should contact the LSST:UK Project Managers (George Beckett and Terry Sloan: lusc_pm@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk), while everyone is encouraged to subscribe to the Rubin Observatory Digest for more general news from the US observatory team.

Bob Mann