• 1 Introduction
• 2 LSST:UK All Hands Meeting
• 3 International Programme Coordinator
• 4 Call for photo-z Letters of Recommendation
• 5 Recent LSST:UK outputs
• 6 Forthcoming meetings of interest

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Introduction

The highlight of the last month for LSST:UK was, undoubtedly, the 2021 LSST:UK All Hands Meeting, which took place online in three half-day sessions on 11-13 May. Despite its online format, this proved to be a lively event, with a wide range of interesting talks, the slides from which are all now available online, as noted below. Also below we have a summary from Aprajita Verma of the work that she is doing as an International Programme Coordinator within the Rubin Director’s Office, and a reminder that the Observatory is currently soliciting input from the community to influence its plans for the photometric redshift information to be included in the data release catalogues.

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.

LSST:UK All Hands Meeting

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The 2021 LSST:UK All Hands Meeting attracted more than 150 registrants for its three half-days of events on 11-13 May 2021. Attendees heard a range of talks, including updates on the Rubin Observatory status and schedule, LSST:UK plans and a series of contributed talks from members of the LSST:UK community.

A major focus for the event was to broaden the range of UK astronomers engaging with the Rubin LSST and, in particular, to increase participation by Early Career Researchers, in whose research careers the Rubin LSST and its follow-up are likely to figure prominently. The meeting featured a wide-ranging talk introducing the Rubin LSST and LSST:UK to Early Career Researchers and others new to the community, plus summaries of the activities of each of the Science Collaboration, and chances to ask follow-up questions in a GatherTown virtual venue or via a dedicated Slack channel.

GatherTown was also the venue for a poster session and provided somewhere for people to bump into, and chat to, their friends in as close a facsimile of the feel of a conference as we could create online. While most might have preferred to meet in person, this experience showed that it is possible to hold a lively virtual conference, and being online enabled participation by those who might normally struggle to get away to attend a three-day meeting in person.

The slides from all the presentations are available on the AHM wiki page - LSST:UK All Hands Meeting (Virtual, 11th—13th May 2021) - and a questionnaire is being circulated to all registrants, soliciting feedback to shape future LSST:UK meetings.

International Programme Coordinator

Following the change to the Rubin Observatory Operational model, the International Program Coordinators (IPCs) have been included in the Rubin Operations to support the Rubin Directorate in establishing and maintaining an international program. The IPCs have roles in supporting the Contribution Evaluation Committee (CEC), the Rubin Coordination Groups (e.g. Photo-z, Crowded Fields, IDACs) and acting as facilitators and liaisons between the Contributors and Recipient (Rubin Observatory and Science Collaboration) teams.

After being a member of the CEC, and chairing the software subcommittee from the end of last year, I have joined the IPC team. My experience as a previous Science Collaboration co-chair and part of the CEC has helped me represent ‘Recipient’ perspectives to the team. In March, the in-kind evaluation process of over 150 unique contributions was completed, reporting the extensive evaluation of the proposals to the Rubin Director. The result is a rich and varied international programme providing Rubin’s US and Chilean community with data processing and computing resources, telescope time and datasets, and software infrastructure to Rubin and the Science Collaborations. The Director has presented the full In-kind program to the Rubin Management Board in preparation for Agency approval. This will eventually lead to the Data Rights Agreements. The IPCs are currently developing and building the infrastructure for the tracking and evaluation system, and helping Recipients and the International teams prepare for the start and implementation of their forthcoming contributions.

Call for photo-z Letters of Recommendation

Photometric redshifts are crucial for most extragalactic science with the Rubin LSST and the Observatory is currently seeking community input to its plans for the photometric redshift information to be included in the data release catalogues. This input will be in the form of Letters of Recommendation, which may recommended particular photo-z estimators, but may also just summarise photo-z requirements for particular science analyses.

The call for the letters is available as a post on the http://community.lsst.org. Guidance on preparing letters of recommendation is being provided through a series of Virtual Forms (the next of which is on 9 June at 8am Pacific/16.00 BST) while the plan for evaluation of their content is set out in a roadmap document. Any interested person or group is invited to submit a letter, while this process is a focus for current debate within the extragalactic science collaborations.

The deadline for receipt of letters of recommendation is 30 September 2021.

Recent LSST:UK outputs

LSST:UK has recently produced the following technical reports.

Forthcoming meetings of interest

The global pandemic has led to almost all face-to-face meetings being cancelled. However, in light of continued restrictions on travel, Rubin Observatory business has moved online and we aim to maintain a list of relevant/ interesting upcoming meetings on our Confluence site. Some specific highlights include:

• The ESCAPE project is holding a Summer School on Data Science for Astronomy, Astroparticle, and Particle Physics, during 7th--18th June. Details on IN2P3 Indico site.

• The next DESC Virtual Collaboration Meeting is scheduled for 19th--23rd July 2021. Details provide on the DESC Confluence site (login required).

• The 2021 Rubin Project and Community Workshop will take place online from 9th--13th August. Details to follow.