Introduction
April 4th News Digest (https://www.lsst.org/news/digest )
TMA “substantially complete”
Renee Hlozek elected DESC Spokesperson
More details on PCW2023: https://project.lsst.org/meetings/rubin2023/ - including requests for sessions (and ability to browse those already suggested).
Following a Construction/Commissioning Schedule workshop held on April 6th, the updated Project completion date has been adjusted to February 2025, with System First Light forecast for October 2024. The completion date is a forecast from the detailed project plan to completion that will be updated as we progress through the challenging but rewarding next steps of system integration and test. The forecast date does not include the expected schedule contingency we will build into the plan forward as we work with the NSF and DOE on the final phases of the project.
Those with ideas for future newsletter items should contact the LSST:UK Project Managers (George Beckett and Terry Sloanlusc_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.
IDACs Workshop
Website - https://project.lsst.org/meetings/rubin-idacs/welcome
Google Drive folder - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Vns_hvyrWSNgwNtlam0M5qXZgJbUTW-v
As most readers of this newsletter will already know, turning Rubin’s millions of raw exposures into useable science products is a major challenge. To address this challenge, the international LSST consortium is developing a software pipeline to perform all the calibration, coadding, detection, measuring, etc., that the astronomy community require to turn the raw imaging data into scientific discoveries. What is perhaps less well known is that these science pipelines have been designed and developed with universality in mind, allowing other surveys to utilise the expertise and effort that has gone into developing Rubin’s Science Pipeline for their own gain.
While Rubin’s Science Pipelines have been developed with broader application in-mind, the sheer diversity of astronomical surveys mandates a flexible structure that can be adapted to different datasets with different pixel scales, filters, metadata (i.e., headers) etc. The way this adapting of the pipeline is achieved is via a so-called “obs package”. As well as provided configuration data, such as detector size, defects, and pixel scales, an obs package dictates how the raw exposures are ingested into the data repository that is referred-to throughout data processing. Further, what steps are carried-out by the science pipelines - whether that be flat-fielding and bias subtraction, PSF-modelling, coaddition of science frames, source detection and measurement, etc. - is also controlled by the obs-package. Indeed, obs packages are so fundamental to Rubin’s Science Pipelines that it is impossible to process data without one.
Piece about how the DRP Science Pipelines have been designed to be applicable to surveys beyond the LSST.
obs packages, and how they enable the Science Pipeline to be adapted to take data from other surveys.
Existing use cases: HSC, VISTA, GOTO, DP0, SDSS.
Allows data from other campaigns to be processed consistently and, potentially, be incorporated into a common multiwavelength, multi-depth, dataset.
Outcome of Consortium Board Chair election process
As mentioned in the March Newsletter, Mike Watson’s current term as Consortium Board Chair is coming to a close, so, as Deputy Chair, I solicited nominations from the Board to fill that role for the next three years. The outcome of that process is that Mike will continue as LSST:UK Board Chair for another term, having been elected unopposed, which I take as a clear indication of the confidence the Board has in Mike's stewardship. LSST:UK has benefited greatly from that stewardship and we all look forward to Mike guiding us to the start of operations.
DP0 Summer School
https://dp0-2.lsst.io/dp0-delegate-resources/virtual-summer-school-2023.html - deadline June 5th
Forthcoming meetings of interest
A reminder of a date for your diary for the LSST@Europe 5 meeting, which will be held in Poreč, Croatia, during 25th--29th September 2023. Registration information is expected to be published in the next couple of weeks. The dates have also been confirmed for the Rubin Project and Community Workshop 2023: it will be held on 7th--11th August in Tucson, Arizona.
Other meetings of potential interest for the coming months include:
12th-14th June: LSST Galaxies Collaboration meeting, Paris
20th–22nd June: The Transient and Variable Universe, held at University of Urbana Champaign, Illinois, USA
3rd-7th July: The National Astronomy Meeting 2023, held in Cardiff, with a three-part session on “UK involvement in the Vera C. Rubin Observatory: Legacy Survey of Space and Time”
24th–28th July: DESC Collaboration Meeting (SLAC), California, USA
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 the LSST:UK Pool Travel Fund. Details are available at Forthcoming LSST-related Meetings .
Note that the current list of forthcoming meeting 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.
Announcements
If you have significant announcements that are directly relevant to LSST:UK and would like to share the announcement in a future newsletter, please contact the LSST:UK project managers.