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  • A collection of general background information about the Rubin LSST can be found at https://www.lsst.org/scientists. Information about the survey strategy can be found at https://survey-strategy.lsst.io/ and there is a webpage of key numbers for the LSST system and survey, while updated versions of some of those numbers (e.g., expected point source limiting depths in the six bands) can be found in Table 2 of the Bianco et al (2022) cadence optimisation paper.

  • A set of slides providing further background information about the Rubin LSST and about UK involvement in it can be found linked from Getting started with the Rubin Observatory and LSST:UK.

  • The Rubin Observatory maintain a citable document on Zenodo to support grant applicants. It includes a summary description of LSST data products, releases, tools for supporting analysis, etc. The most detailed reference for the Rubin data products is the Data Product Definition Document (DPDD). Useful information regarding the first public release of LSSTCam alerts is also available in https://rtn-061.lsst.io/.

UK involvement in the Rubin LSST

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The Construction Project Status page presents a timeline for key events in early operations w.r.t. the date of System First Light (also referred to as Rubin First Light, and currently no sooner than 1619-MayJun-2025, as per their October 10, 2024 update), as follows:

  • Data Preview 1: contains a subset of early commissioning data, i.e. from ComCam, and provisionally LSSTCam; released to data rights holders 2-3 months after System First Light - i.e., no sooner than July August 2025

  • LSST Survey Start: 4-7 months after System First Light - i.e., no sooner than September October 2025

  • Data Preview 2: contains Science Verification data obtained with LSSTCam; released to data rights holders no sooner than 6 months after survey starts - i.e., no sooner than April May 2026

  • Data Release 1: contains first six months of survey data; released to data rights holders no sooner than 12 months after LSST Survey Start - i.e., no sooner than September October 2026

Data Release 2 is expected six months after Data Release 1 (i.e., no sooner than late Spring 2027), and subsequent data releases are expected annually thereafter.

Eric Bellm’s presentation at LSST@Europe6 provides a useful summary of what to expect and when regarding prompt data products. Key takeaways include:

  • prompt data products include:

    • alerts available to the world via brokers (<=120sec after readout during Y1);

    • catalogs based on alerts available to data rights holders via prompt products database (<=24hrs after readout);

    • nightly pixel data available to data rights holders via Rubin Science Platform (>=80 hours after readout).

  • “the most likely timescale for the first alerts are during science validation surveys”; “we do not expect to send alerts from ComCam data”.