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Introduction
Another key construction milestone was passed earlier this month, when the M1M3 mirror was moved from the storage shed where it has resided for almost five years to the main Observatory building (as shown to the right and in the accompanying video). The mirror can now be removed from its storage box and readied for coating in the on-site coating plant.
Registration has opened for the 2024 Rubin Community Workshop, which will take place in a hybrid fashion during the week of 22-26 July, with the in-person portion taking place at SLAC, in Menlo Park, California. There is a limit of 250 in-person attendees, and registration for in-person attendees will close on 1 June (or sooner, if that limit is reached). Remote attendance will be free, but still requires registration. The deadline for submitting a talk or poster abstract is 4 April, with submissions via a webform.
Registration has also opened for the LSST@Europe6 conference. It will take place during the week of 16-20 September 2024 at Los Cancajos, on the island of La Palma in the Canaries. As in previous years, this conference will feature a mixture of updates from Rubin staff and talks about in-kind contributions from, and science planning activities within, the European portion of the LSST community. In-person attendance is limited to 200 people, but remote attendance is possible, too. 1 May is the deadline for abstract submission, while early-bird registration (at a reduced rate for both in-person and remote attendees) closes on 1 June. LSST:UK has made a very strong showing at previous LSST@Europe conferences, so I hope that many of you will want to attend this one.
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LSST:UK Travel support for Rubin Community Workshop 2024 and LSST@Europe
This summer, two significant Rubin/ LSST conferences are taking place that may attract significant LSST:UK interest:
the Rubin Community Workshop (SLAC, California/ Virtual, 22-26 July) - https://rubinobservatory.org/events/rubin-pcw-2024
LSST@Europe (La Palma, Canary Islands/ Virtual, 16-20 September) - https://meetings.iac.es/LSSTEurope6/
To help manage potential demand for LSST:UK Pool Travel funding, we are running time-limited calls for both of these events.
To apply for Pool Travel Funding support for the Rubin Community Workshop, please submit an application by 4pm (UK time) on Tuesday 16th April.
To apply for Pool Travel Funding support for the LSST@Europe6 conference, please submit an application by 4pm (UK time) on Tuesday 21 May.
New paper: The morphological mix of dwarf galaxies in the nearby Universe
LSST:UK Project Scientist Recruitment
The LSST:UK Consortium is recruiting a Project Scientist. The successful candidate will replace Stephen Smartt who has decided to step down after almost seven years of service to accept a prestigious Royal Society Research Professorship. This position is funded at a level of 0.2 FTE and is available from July 2024, with an initial appointment running to 31 March 2027.
Further details and instructions for those interested in applying can be found at:
LSST:UK Project Scientist Recruitment (2024)
The deadline for applications is 7 June 2024.
LSST:UK at NAM2024: abstract submission open
Abstract submission is now open for NAM2024 (and will close on 3 June). The conference will be taking place this year in Hull in the week of 14-19 July, and we have a pair of two-hour sessions on the Monday (09.00-11.00 and (15.00-17.00). As in recent years, we intend these to include a mixture of updates for the wider UK astronomical community and contributed talks covering both the UK’s in-kind contributions and preparatory work underway in the Science Collaborations and elsewhere. As this will be the last NAM before on-sky observing begins, the focus will be on preparations for early science with Rubin LSST data. We particularly welcome abstract submissions from early career researchers and will endeavour to select a diverse range of speakers.
Please feel free to contact either of us if you have any questions about these sessions.
The LSST:UK Pool Travel Fund
The LSST:UK Phase C project includes a Pool Travel Fund to support UK-based astronomers to participate in Rubin-related science meetings and activities, to promote UK science priorities within Rubin and to enable better exploitation of the opportunities presented by Rubin to UK astronomers. This follows on from similar funds in Phase A and Phase B, which you may have been aware of.
In Phase C, we have £130k funding, for the four years of the award (April 2023 to March 2027), which is administered by the University of Edinburgh. Anyone based at an LSST:UK Consortium institution (https://www.lsst.ac.uk/governance#partners ) is eligible to apply for support for Rubin-related activities, following the procedure described on the LSST:UK wiki (https://lsst-uk.atlassian.net/l/cp/
rpdh3CBz ).
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Save The Date: Wednesday 24 April: An online Intro to the Rubin Science Platform Session!
Over the past few months, James Mullaneyhas been running a number of in-personIntroduction to the Rubin Science Platform sessions at various locations around the UK. More than 80 people have attended these sessions, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. As a number of people have been unable to attend an in-person session, James will be running an online session on the afternoon of Wednesday 24 April 2024.Please complete this short Google Form* to register your interest in attending the online event, and to receive updates on precise times and connection details once they become available.
A recording of the session will be made available for those who are unable to attend the online event.
Note that this is the same form that was used to register interest in the in-person sessions, so there is no need to re-register if you have already done so (however it won't matter if you register more than once).
Access the signup form: https://forms.gle/hX4rK33RdtnXEptE8
2024 LSST Data Rights Call
On 2 April 2024, a new call for applications for LSST Data Rights will be issued via the lusc-announce email list. The call will close at 4pm on 30 April 2024. Staff and students from any organisation eligible to hold an STFC grant may apply. Since the UK’s Data Rights Agreement is awaiting signature by STFC and the US Department of Energy, this call will be for LSST Data Rights up to 30 September 2025.
Existing LSST Data Rights holders whose term ends before 30 September 2025 will be emailed by Terry Sloan and asked if they want their current term extended to that date. Only new applicants will therefore have to apply directly through the (lightweight) application form.
More detailed information about the call will be provided in the email tolusc-announce.Panel | ||
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Latest LUSC Team Meeting
On 1 March, the LSST:UK Science Centre (LUSC) Team convened online for its bi-annual team meeting.
The presentations highlighted recent updates (as well as challenges) in several work packages. They included an update on the LSST-VISTA Fusion Dataset by Elham Saremiwhile EPO Chris Lintottintroduced new team member Oluwatoyosi Oyegoke who is working on the integration of Zooniverse Citizen Science platform with the Rubin platform.
Tom J Wilsonpresented his work to build on conventional cross-matching techniques to create one single, multi-catalogue ‘Super Match’ to measure spectral energy distribution (SED) (see right).
LSST:UK Communications update
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Social media: follow LSST:UK on X |
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Want to sharpen your comms skills? |
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LSST:UK is now on social media! In line with Rubin and LSST France, we have decided to kick off our social media activity by launching on X. We will be rolling out Bluesky Social and Mastodon accounts soon, as well as Instagram and LinkedIn profiles. It seems to be much harder to get any traction on X than it was in the past so every follow will help us get the word out about the project and your work. If you are on the X platform, please give @LSSTUK a follow. |
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Thanks to those team members who have signed up to receive more information about gaining skills to help communicate LSST:UK to non-specialist audiences. We have a growing list of names and Communications Officer Eleanor O'Kane will be in touch to find out more about your interests and existing communications experience. If you haven't responded but would like to know more about future training, add your name here. |
Watch: Chile at the forefront of studying the Universe
A new video highlighting the growth of astronomy in Chile features sweeping shots of Rubin’s Cerro Pachón site, filmed in January 2024.
Viewers get a bird’s eye view of Cerro Pachón before being taken inside Rubin. The video also provides a whistle-stop tour of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory.
The film was produced by Imagen de Chile, which promotes the country of Chile internationally.
Recent LSST:UK Science Centre outputs
The LSST:UK Science Centre has recently produced the following technical reports.
Title
Author(s)
Description
C.Lintott
This document briefly describes deliverable D3.12.1 ‘Citizen Science system trial’ from the LSST:UK Phase B WP 3.12 ‘Support of EPO software'. The aim of the deliverable was to test integration and data flow from the Rubin Science Platform to a Zooniverse project. It thus required coordination on both project and Zooniverse sides.
C.Lintott
This document briefly describes deliverable D3.12.2 ‘Alert system trial project with broker data’ from the LSST:UK Phase B WP 3.12 'Support of EPO software'. The aim of the deliverable was also to test integration and data flow from a broker to a Zooniverse project.
News in brief
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Vera Rubin story nominated for prestigious design award
The Stellar True Story of Vera Rubin was among the finalists in the Best Illustrated Story category in the 2024 Society of American Society of Magazine Editors awards.
Created by illustrator Breena Bard for Kazoo, a US children’s magazine, the tale traces Rubin’s interest in studying the motion of space from her childhood, including the moment she received her first telescope.
Read the illustrated story here: https://kazoomagazine.com/blogs/news/kazoo-news-2024-national-magazine-awards
Eleanor O'Kane
Applications can be made at any time and we aim to review and respond to all applications within one month.
We also maintain a page with upcoming meetings that we think will be interesting to the UK Community. This is always accessible on Confluence (https://lsst-uk.atlassian.net/l/cp/UQgW9Hvn ) and topical meetings are summarised in each edition of this newsletter.
For meetings that are likely to be particularly popular, we may choose to issue a specific call for applications to help ensure we can review and prioritise the range of cases fairly. Typically this is done for larger events such as the Rubin Community Workshop or the LSST@Europe meetings. Any such calls are publicised via the LUSC-ANNOUNCE mailing list (https://lsst-uk.atlassian.net/l/cp/1UjUJkVY ) and posted on the Relevant Meetings page.
Funding is awarded at 80% FEC as is the norm for UKRI grants: the remaining 20% of the cost would usually be contributed by the applicant's institution. If in doubt, we recommend you speak to your local finance team to confirm this.
New in Phase C is the opportunity to request funding for hosting meetings. Up to 25% of the Pool Travel Fund has been earmarked by the LSST:UK to support Rubin-focused meetings held in the UK. As for travel applications, more details are available on the wiki page noted above (that is, https://lsst-uk.atlassian.net/l/cp/rpdh3CBz ).
If you have any questions about the Pool Travel Fund, please contact the project management team (mailto:lusc-pm@jiscmail.ac.uk).
Leadership positions held by LSST:UK members
Here is the latest list of significant leadership positions held by members of the LSST:UK consortium in the project and international Science Collaborations. If you are aware of any corrections or additions please contact the LSST:UK Project Managers (George Beckett and Terry Sloan: lusc_pm@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk).
David Alonso | Co-convenor of the DESC External Synergies Working Group; CMB-S4 DESC Liaison; Simons Observatory DESC Liaison; UK representative on DESC Operations Committee; Core Cosmology Library (CCL) Team lead. |
David Bacon | Member of DESC Speakers Bureau |
Manda Banerji | Member of the Rubin-Euclid DDP Working Group; Galaxies SC member of the Rubin International In-Kind Contribution Evaluation Committee (CEC). |
George Beckett | Member of the LSST DESC High-performance computing resources committee; UK representative on Rubin Data Production Leadership Committee. |
Rebecca. Bowler | Co-chair of the SED fitting and Photometric Redshifts Working Group in the LSST Galaxies Science Collaboration. |
Erminia Calabrese | DESC Advisory Board |
Thomas Collett | Member of the Rubin-Euclid DDP Working Group |
Victor Debattista | Co-lead of the Galactic Bulge WG in the LSST Stars, Milky Way and Local Volume Science Collaboration |
Tassia Ferreira | Member of DESC Collaboration Council; Member of the DESC Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee |
Chris Frohmaier | 4MOST Extra-Galactic Deputy Project Scientist |
Carlos Garcia-Garcia | Co-convenor of the Weak Lensing and Large Scale Structure Working Group |
Qianjun Hang | co-lead of the DESC RAIL Topical Team |
Joachim Harnois-Déraps | DESC Higher Order Statistics (HOS) topical team co-lead |
Peter Hatfield | Co-chair of the Galaxy Environment Working Group in the LSST Galaxies Science Collaboration |
Jenny Hiscock | Member of DESC International Resources Committee |
Sebastian. Hoenig | Co-Chair of the Variability group in the AGN Science Collaboration; In-kind contribution coordinator for the AGN Science Collaboration; AGN SC alternate member of the International In-Kind Contribution Evaluation Committee. |
Sugata Kaviraj | Co-chair of the LSST Galaxies Science Collaboration; Co-chair of the Low Surface Brightness Coordination Group. |
Ofer Lahav | Member of DESC Publication Board |
Boris Leistedt | Co-convenor of the Weak Lensing and Large Scale Structure (LSS) Working Group |
D. Leonard | Co-lead of the DESC Modelling and Combined Probes Analysis Working Group |
Chris Lintott | leads the LSST EPO development of Zooniverse as a citizen science platform |
James Mullaney | Chair of the Active Galactic Nuclei WG in the LSST Galaxies Science Collaboration |
Cyrielle Opitom | Co-lead Active objects WG in the LSST Solar System Science Collaboration |
Subir Sarkar | Lead of DESC Project 52 -- Testing the isotropy of the universe |
Meg Schwamb | Co-chair of Solar System Science Collaboration |
Stephen Smartt | member of the Survey Cadence and Optimisation Committee; DESC Rubin Observatory Project and Facility Operations liaison for Survey Cadence and Optimisation Committee. |
Graham Smith | Co-chair of the Strong Gravitational Lensing Science Collaboration (SLSC); Commissioning Liaison for the SLSC. |
Sreevarsha Sreejith | Member of the DESC Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee |
Mark Sullivan | Co-lead of the DESC Time Domain Analysis Working Group; Member of the DESC Membership Committee; 4MOST/TiDES DESC Liaison. |
Aprajita Verma | In-kind Program Coordination Team Lead; Lead of the Galaxies Science Collaboration Strong Lensing Working Group; Member of SLSC Advisory Group; SLSC member of the International In-Kind Contribution Evaluation Committee; Chair of the Software Sub-committee and International Program Coordinator in the Rubin Director’s Office. |
Maria Vincenzi | Co-convener of the DESC Time Domain Analysis Working Group |
Aaron Watkins | Co-lead of the LSST LSB challenge 1: "How do LSST algorithms do at detecting LSB sources?" ; Co-chair of the low-surface-brightness working group within the LSST Galaxies Science collaboration; Co-chair of the Low Surface Brightness Coordination Group. |
Carola Zanoletti | Co-lead of the DESC Beyond wCDM team |
Greater insights into stellar streams – latest Rubin science release
The latest science release from Rubin explains how the observatory’s camera will use six different colour filters to detect stellar streams that are around five times more distant than is currently possible.
The article explains how these glittering streams of stars often show telltale signs of disturbance which scientists suspect may be caused by dark matter. The Rubin’s camera will allow these slender trails to be studied in more detail than ever before to uncover their back story. Observing stellar streams allows scientists to probe a different aspect of dark matter because they bear the impact of dark matter’s gravitational effects at small scales.
The artist’s impression, right, shows a myriad of stellar streams in and around the Milky Way. These stretched-out remnants of dwarf galaxies and star clusters showcase gravitational interactions between stars, clumps of dark matter, and the entire galaxy.
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Read the article: Dark matter’s ghostly disruptions of stellar streams revealed – latest Rubin science release |
Meeting report: Rubin ToO 2024
The observing strategy implemented by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's (Rubin's) Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will be the outcome of a significant multi-year community consultation exercise. UK astronomers continue to play key roles in this process through participation in the Survey Cadence Optimization Committee (SCOC), prominent roles in Rubin/LSST Science Collaborations, and representation on the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC). With first light approaching, and the cadence of routine LSST survey observations now largely settled, attention recently returned to the 3% of observing time that the SCOC have recommended to Rubin leadership to spend on target of opportunity (ToO) observations.
From 18-20 March 2024, over 100 colleagues from around the world joined a workshop hosted at the University of California Berkeley to build the community consensus on the content of the Rubin/LSST ToO program at Rubin ToO 2024: Envisioning the Vera C. Rubin Observatory LSST Target of Opportunity program.
The team worked round the clock for three days, benefitting from asynchronous working across multiple time-zones in this hybrid meeting. Collaborating in thematically organised groups, workshop participants developed a consensus position on the design of ToO observations for follow-up of gravitational wave sources including candidate gravitationally lensed gravitational waves, high energy neutrino sources, Galactic supernovae, and potentially hazardous asteroids.
The community consensus was documented in a 60-page report that has been submitted to the SCOC, and will be made publicly available. Further community-wide discussion of the ToO program will take place at the Rubin Community Workshop 2024 (July 22-26; SLAC), and feedback from the SCOC is anticipated late-summer this year. In the meantime, further information is available from within the respective Rubin/LSST Science Collaborations, and from Graham Smith (Member, Rubin ToO 2024 Scientific Organising Committee).
New paper: Enabling Science from the Rubin Alert Stream with Lasair
A new paper by Roy Williamsand collaborators published on arXiv sheds light on Lasair, the UK community broker for transient alerts from LSST.
Enabling Science from the Rubin Alert Stream with Lasair explains the system's capabilities, how users can achieve their scientific goals, and how Lasair is implemented. As a mature system, Lasair has been processing and serving data from the similarly formatted stream of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) alerts.
Pronounced L-AH-s-uh-r, Lasair means flame or flash in Scots and Irish Gaelic.
Read the open access paper: Enabling Science from the Rubin Alert Stream with Lasair
Forthcoming meetings of interest
Dates, locations and links… The current list of forthcoming meetings is always available on the Relevant Meetings page. You may also wish to check information held on the LSST organisation website LSST-organised events and the LSST Corporation website.
Dates | Meeting Title / Event | Meeting Website/ Contact | Meeting location / venue |
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1520/Apr/24—19May/Apr/24 | KAVLI-IAU (IAUS 387) Symposium, (Toward) Discovery of Life Beyond Earth and its Impact | UK | Durham University | |
17/Apr/24—19/Apr/24 | Time Domain Needles in Rubin's Haystack | USA | Harvard Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA | |
20/May/24—23/-23/May/24 | Rare Gems in Big Data. The discovery potential of large astrophysical surveys: science opportunities, tools, and techniques | https://mailchi.mp/d8d4daa3ed0a/first-announcement-rare-gems-in-big-data?e=5176cbbd93 | USA | Tucson, AZ |
08/Jul/24-12/Jul/24 | DESC Collaboration Meeting | Switzerland | ETZ Zurich | |
14/Jul/24 - 19/Jul/24 | RAS National Astronomy Meeting 2024 | Hull | |
22/Jul/24-25/Jul/24 | Catching supermassive black holes with Rubin-LSST: Towards novel insights and discoveries into AGN science | https://indico.ict.inaf.it/event/2784/ Registration is now open. Abstract submission deadline is 12 April. | Italy | Turin |
22/Jul/24-26/Jul/24 | Rubin Community Workshop | More details about the meeting will be available once the meeting website is set up and registration opens. | USA | SLAC, California (hybrid) |
16/Sep/24—20/Sep/24 | LSST@Europe6 | Spain | Island of La Palma |
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Members of the Consortium (not in receipt of travel funding through one of the Science Centre grants) may apply for travel support for meetings of this kind via the LSST:UK Pool Travel Fund. Details are available at Forthcoming LSST-related Meetings |
Announcements
The Challenging the Standard Cosmological Model workshop takes place at the Royal Society in London on 15 and 16 April 2024. In-person registration was showing as sold out at time of newsletter publication however you can still sign up for virtual participation (advance registration is essential).
(Requested by Subir Sarkar)
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If you have significant news or announcements that are directly relevant to LSST:UK and would like to share them in a future newsletter, contact Eleanor O'Kane (email eokane@roe.ac.uk) |
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