1 Introduction
2 Rubin Strongly Lensed Transients community meets in Birmingham
3 Launch of the Junior Associates Network
4 Setup of monitoring for LSST RAL DRP
5 2025H2 LSST Data Rights Call
6 Pool travel fund update
7 Leadership positions held by LSST:UK members
8 Communications roundup
9 Forthcoming meetings of interest

Introduction

Rubin passed a major milestone this month, with the formal transition from construction to operations, as announced in Bob Blum’s post on the Community forum. The image, right, shows members of the Rubin leadership team at the handover ceremony (Bob Blum is second from left). On-sky observing with the Simonyi Survey Telescope has also recommenced, following about a month of planned engineering time, details of which can be found in a Community post from Keith Bechtol.

The Observatory has now entered a period of “Early Operations System Optimization” which will focus on improving the reliability of the image quality across the whole field of view, in advance of the start of the ten-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time, which is now expected to start “no earlier than the 31st of December of this year”. Updates on progress made through this period will be provided by Keith Bechtol in posts to the Community forum with the tag #early-ops-update.

Bob Blum’s post also noted that processing of data for Data Preview 2 will commence in mid-January, with the goal of publishing DP2 in mid-2026. It will include a selection of images taken as part of the Science Validation surveys up to the end of the on-sky observing campaign in late September, which may be supplemented by further observations within the existing SV survey footprint that are taken during the next few months. Hopefully, more details of the contents of DP2 will be shared in the coming months.

Closer to home, we passed a major milestone of our own, with the launch - detailed below - of our Junior Associates Network (JAN). This is one of a number of changes that will be made to the LSST:UK Consortium over the next year or so, as it evolves to supporting the community in exploiting the data rights earned through the STFC-funded LSST:UK Science Centre programme to do science. Many of the scientific discoveries to be made over the course of the next decade of LSST observing will be led by researchers who are currently Junior Associates, so it’s crucial that we provide JAs with the support that they need to take full advantage of the opportunities that follow from LSST data rights. I encourage all JAs to join the JAN and would like to thank the group that are getting it up and running for taking on this important role.

Finally, two brief reminders. Most of those interested should already know about it, but the DESC Sprint Week taking place from 3-7 November has a physical hub in Cambridge in addition to the one in Princeton. Also, a reminder that the LINCC programme runs a series of monthly tech talks, taking place online on the second Thursday of each month and “showcasing work by the broad Rubin software and archives community designed to enable LSST science”.

@Bob Mann

Credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/A. Alexov

Credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory

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Rubin Strongly Lensed Transients community meets in Birmingham

On 23 and 24 September, the Rubin Strongly Lensed Transients community – from various Science Collaborations – met for a workshop at the University of Birmingham.

The meeting was focussed on getting ready for survey operations and optimising the science. The two days were discussion and action item focussed with a strategy for project announcements planned, and co-working on aspects of collaboration such as publications and follow-up proposals. Early career researchers presented their work in short talks that included topics like direct search for lensed supernovae, machine learning methods, cluster lensing and difference imaging source recovery.

Endgoals from the meeting included a start for the publication policy, submission of proposals and collaborative projects to be announced at appropriate working group telecons. There were 25 in-person attendees and close to 20 remote connections over the two days.

@Suhail Dhawan

Access the slides for the talks
Detailed meeting minutes
Watch the recording (Passcode: 9E#+L@7F )

Launch of the Junior Associates Network

Following interest expressed by members of the LSST:UK community at this year’s National Astronomy Meeting in Durham, we are delighted to announce the launch of the LSST:UK Junior Associates Network (JAN).

The main aims of this network are as follows:

to create a supportive space for current and future junior associates (JAs) of the LSST:UK consortium;
to provide a platform on which JAs can share knowledge, collaborate, mentor, advertise job opportunities, and promote their own work;
to ensure that JA voices are heard and involved in decisions regarding how the consortium operates.

To kick things off, we have set up a JAN mailing list, which will be used to broadcast any JAN-related announcements, such as job advertisements or upcoming events that might be relevant to JAs. To sign up to this mailing list, simply fill in this online form and follow the instructions in the subsequent confirmation email. This information can also be found on the new JAN Wiki, and will be included in all LSST:UK newsletters going forward.

In addition, we have set up a Slack channel within the LSST:UK workspace, to be used for general announcements or queries related to the JAN. Those wishing to join can do so by searching for “#jan-general”. Two additional JAN-exclusive channels have also been created, “#jan-random” and “#jan-support”. Unlike the general channel, which is open to all members of LSST:UK, these are both private channels intended only for members of the JAN. The idea is to provide a space in which JAs can express anything that they might feel less comfortable doing in the presence of more senior members of the consortium: in particular, “#jan-support” is intended for peer-to-peer support, while “#jan-random” is a more general-purpose space. Those wishing to join either of these channels can email Jamie Robinson (james.robinson@ed.ac.uk).

The leadership team currently consists of: Clara Pennock [co-chair], Tom Wilson [co-chair], Steve Ardern, Tom Cornish, Garreth Martin, Andres Ponte Perez, Jamie Robinson, Matthew Temple, and Andrew Wilson. Over the next few months as JAN membership grows, we plan to hold elections (details TBD) for leadership positions to create a more inclusive and diverse group. Positions will thereafter become available on a rotating basis (time scale TBD) to create leadership opportunities for other JAs. Furthermore, to facilitate our goal of ensuring JAs are heard within the consortium, the two co-chairs will join the LSST:UK Executive Group, and we have also been granted two seats on the Consortium Board.

The above describes only the foundation of the JAN, and we aim to ensure that the nature of the JAN will evolve according to the needs of its members. The leadership team will meet monthly to discuss the status of the JAN and what we can do to improve it, so feedback is always welcome.

If you would like to be a part of the JAN, then please subscribe to the mailing list and join the Slack channel as described above. We look forward to welcoming many of you to the network!

@Thomas Cornish, Steve Ardern, @Garreth Martin, @Clara Pennock, Andres Ponte Perez, @James Robinson, @Matthew Temple, @Andrew Wilson, @Tom J Wilson

Setup of monitoring for LSST RAL DRP

For the past six months, as part of the STFC graduate scheme, I had the privilege of working alongside Timothy Noble and Mathew Sims in the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory’s (RAL) Tier 1 group, working on the LSST Data Release Pipeline (DRP). My role was to set up monitoring for the DRP pipeline at RAL.

In this short period, I am grateful to have been able to see a lot of amazing parts of the project. I had the opportunity to see the Rubin first look event from Oxford thanks to @Chris Lintott and soon after had the opportunity to take part in the Rubin Community workshop! It was also great meeting some of the people from LSST:UK I had seen for months in virtual meetings at the GridPP meeting.

Since my contribution to the project has now ended, I would like to share the results of the work that I have done.

Monitoring stack at RAL

My work has mainly been in setting up monitoring for the LSST data movement message stack and registration for the DRP at RAL.

Image data movement by the data management system Rucio generates messages; these include metadata as well as important information to be added post transfer. These messages are registered in the Apache Kafka platform. Each site hosts their own Kafka service that mirrors the main Kafka nodes at the US site, but filters for site relevant messages. From the local Kafka, the messages are ingested by the IngestD service. The IngestD service populates the metadata database Butler with the location of the relevant images on the site storage. When I joined the team, there was minimal monitoring of this chain of events, making it very difficult to troubleshoot which part of the chain was responsible for issues.

To be able to monitor the incoming stream of messages, I extracted metrics from Kafka using Prometheus, which then populates a Grafana dashboard, which can be seen below:

Figure 1: The Grafana dashboard to monitor messages from SLAC to RAL

The dashboard is capable of monitoring the following:

The RAL Kafka cluster health through some necessary health checks.
Connection to the USDF Kafka cluster using heartbeats.
The resources utilised by the Kafka cluster and other monitoring services setup around it.
Data about the Kafka messages - How many are received.
Data about the messages sent to the IngestD.

This allows us to monitor the entire data flow pipeline from the US to RAL up until the messages are finally stored. The main advantage of the monitoring setup is that it is made to be modular. This design allows for individual components of the monitoring stack to be replaced as and when it is needed with less effort.

The whole flowchart of the system can be seen below:

Monitoring SLAC PanDA and Harvester

As a part of this project, I also had the opportunity to work on the US side of the LSST project at SLAC, by setting up additional monitoring for their PanDA and Harvester systems with the help and feedback of US colleagues. PanDA is the central system which submits analysis workflows to the various site’s High Throughput Compute elements. Harvester collects the output metrics from the analysis workflow from the Compute Element worker nodes as the work progresses.

Since LSST submits analysis jobs to several sites (RAL, Lancaster, IN2P3 and SLAC) it was very important to monitor job status, progress, and identify issues when they arise.

With advice from Zhaoyu Yang and Wen Guan from SLAC, I made PanDA (job submission metrics) and Harvester (job progression and completion metrics) dashboards at USDF on their Grafana:

Figure 3: The dashboard at SLAC Grafana

One of the main advantages I brought to the monitoring was the incorporation of filtering the job metrics by Computing site, user and job status so that it becomes easier to track job-related attributes. Another big advantage of the improved dashboard is the inclusion of an information dense table (See below for PanDA table) which includes important data for every job with links to the relevant webpages for the job’s, user’s, and site’s information. This allows for easier thorough investigation of job results.

Figure 4: Table of PanDA job data in the dashboard

This dashboard has been proposed to the SLAC Campaign Management team to be added as an official dashboard in the SLAC Grafana.

I hope these contributions can help future Data Release Pipelines run smoothly, and all I can say is thank you so much to everyone in this community for being so incredibly supportive for the short duration I was here. I hope I can return at some point soon to contribute to this amazing project!

@Gupta, Nalin (STFC,RAL,SC)

2025H2 LSST Data Rights Call

On 4 November 2025, a new call for applications for LSST Data Rights will be issued via the lusc-announce email list.

Among other things, LSST data rights allow you to access data previews – e.g. on the Rubin Science Platform – and to participate in Rubin international Science Collaborations. The call will close at 4pm on Tuesday 25 November 2025. Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their applications in early January 2026.

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 2026.

Most existing data rights holders already have data rights to at least 30 September 2026 and hence need not re-apply in this selection round. If you are unsure of the end-date of your data rights term, you can check this on the current UK data rights holders list. If your end-date is BEFORE 30 September 2026 and you wish to extend your term to that date, then please contact the LUSC Project Manager, Laura Moran (l.moran@epcc.ed.ac.uk).

More detailed information about the call will be provided in the email to lusc-announce and more information on data rights is available on the Rubin Data Policy website.

@Laura Moran

Pool travel fund update

Having recently joined the LSST:UK Project Management team, I am taking over responsibility for the Pool Travel Fund. I thought I would therefore take the opportunity to remind everyone that LSST:UK has a Pool Travel Fund to which members of the LSST:UK Consortium (who are not in receipt of a Phase C grant) may apply for support. The fund usually operates in a responsive mode with applications reviewed as they are submitted. However, if we expect a meeting to be particularly popular, we may issue a time-limited call, to allow us to manage demand. More information about the fund and how to apply is available at LSST:UK Pool Travel Fund .

We also maintain a list of Forthcoming LSST-related Meetings , which you may wish to bookmark and check periodically. A snapshot of the list is included in each newsletter.

Finally, if you are involved in setting up a meeting or event which you think would be of interest to others in the Consortium, please let me know (l.moran@epcc.ed.ac.uk) so it can be added to the list.

@Laura Moran

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 @Terry Sloan (t.m.sloan@ed.ac.uk) or email the LSST:UK Project Management Team at lusc_pm@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk.

David Alonso	DESC Liaison with Simons Observatory and CMB-S4, UK representative on DESC Operations Committee, Core Cosmology Library (CCL) Team lead.
M. Asgari	Co-convener of the DESC Weak Lensing & Large Scale Structure (WLSS) Analysis Group.
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, member of the DESC Data Facility 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
Victor Debattista	Co-lead of the Galactic Bulge WG in the LSST Stars, Milky Way and Local Volume Science Collaboration
S. Dhawan	co-lead of DESC Time Domain Analysis Working Group
Tassia Ferreira	Member of DESC Collaboration Council
Chris Frohmaier	4MOST Extra-Galactic Deputy Project Scientist
Carlos Garcia-Garcia	Co-convenor of the Weak Lensing and Large Scale Structure (LSS) 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
Catherine Heymans	Member of the Rubin-Euclid DDP Implementation Working Group
Jenny Hiscox	Member of DESC International Resources Committee
Sebastian Hoenig	In-kind contribution coordinator for the AGN Science Collaboration; AGN SC 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.
Chris Lintott	leads the LSST EPO development of Zooniverse as a citizen science platform
G. Madden	Member of the DESC International Resources Committee
G. Martin	Co-lead of the Galaxy Morphology Working Group in the LSST Galaxies Science Collaboration
James Mullaney	Chair of the Active Galactic Nuclei WG in the LSST Galaxies Science Collaboration
A. Rożek	Solar Systems Science Collaboration Publication Coordinator
D. Ryczanowski	Co-lead DESC Strong Lensing Topical Team, Member of the Ethics Panel in the Strong Lensing Science Collaboration.
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	Member of SLSC Advisory Group, Commissioning Liaison for the SLSC, Strong Lensing SC member of the Rubin International In-Kind Contribution Evaluation Committee (CEC).
Sreevarsha Sreejith	Member of the DESC Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee
Mark Sullivan	DESC Liaison with 4MOST/TiDES, Member of the DESC Spokesperson Succession Committee.
M. Temple	co-chair of the Active Galactic Nuclei Science Collaboration
Aprajita Verma	In-kind Program Coordination Team Lead, Lead of the Galaxies Science Collaboration Strong Lensing Working Group, Member of SLSC Advisory Group, SLSC rep on the Rubin SC’s DEI Council; Strong Lensing SC member of the Rubin International In-Kind Contribution Evaluation Committee (CEC), 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

@Terry Sloan

Communications roundup

In the Spotlight this month

October saw Helen Jermak and @Bob Mann step into the spotlight for our regular LSST:UK team feature. In the interviews, LSST:UK project leader Bob Mann reveals how The Observer's Book of Astronomy by Patrick Moore triggered his interest in exploring the Universe and imparts solid advice for those treading a similar career path. Helen Jermak, Project Scientist for the New Robotic Telescope (NRT), explains how her work on the NRT collides with Rubin, and talks about how the chance to travel has been a bonus in her career.

Read the latest features on the LSST:UK website | If you’d like to take part, fill in the webform

LSST:UK on the web

Don't forget that LSST:UK has a public facing website; it’s a good resource for anyone new to the project or interested friends and family! The relaunched site has been live for more than six months and we eager to hear your feedback. What works well? What could be improved? Do you look at it at all? If you have any feedback, please email me: eokane@roe.ac.uk

Follow the project on social media

We’re on LinkedIn and BlueSky – if you are too, give us a follow. We use these platforms to spread the word about the work we’re doing in LSST:UK and every follow helps us reach more people.

Follow LSST:UK on LinkedIn | Follow LSST:UK on Bluesky

@Eleanor O'Kane

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 venue/ location

Dates	Meeting Title / Event	Meeting Website/ Contact	Meeting venue/ location
03/Nov/25 - 07/Nov/25	DESC Sprint Week	https://confluence.slac.stanford.edu/x/3nCQJQ (login required)	Princeton, NJ, USA and Cambridge University, UK.
27/Jul/26 – 31/Jul/26	Rubin Community Workshop 2026	TBC	SLAC, Menlo Park, 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 LSST:UK Pool Travel Fund. Details are available at https://lsst-uk.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/HOME/pages/52424060

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)