• 1 Introduction
• 2 Early Science with the Rubin LSST sessions at NAM 2026
• 3 Executive Group elections
• 4 New paper: Variability-selected AGN in dwarf galaxies – the incidence of AGN in dwarf and massive galaxies is similar 
• 5 Rubin broker teams out in force
• 6 Junior Associates Network update
• 7 LSST:UK communications news
• 8 Webinar: How the Square Kilometre Array Observatory is partnering with indigenous communities
• 9 Forthcoming meetings of interest

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Introduction

A sign this month that we’re nearing the start of the 10-year LSST was the approval of the new recommendation from the Survey Cadence Optimization Committee (SCOC) for the observing strategy to be adopted during the early phase of the survey. The recommendation itself can be found as document PSTN-057 and it has been simulated in the baseline_v5.3 OpSim runs. This updated recommendation takes into account greater knowledge of the system performance, as well as the necessity to include additional engineering time during Year 1 to allow for further image quality optimisation. Perhaps the most important feature of the new strategy is the acceleration of the production of the template images needed for Alert Production, by prioritising the use of good-seeing time to take images that can be combined into templates.

July sees our sessions at NAM2026 and the closing of the call for applicants to stand for election to our Executive Group – both of which are discussed in more detail below as well as the next Open Call from UKRI for time on the Isambard-AI GPU-based supercomputer. This call closes on 17 July, but there is also an AIRR Gateway Route, which is intended to “support first-time users of AI supercomputing resources”, as well as for the “benchmarking of algorithms, code, and workflows before applying for larger AIRR opportunities”, so those new to supercomputer-scale AI analysis may be best advised to apply through the Gateway Route first, to help establish a track record and obtain benchmark results that can support a later application for a more substantial allocation through either an Open Call or the dedicated AI for Science calls that are announced periodically.

@Bob Mann

Early Science with the Rubin LSST sessions at NAM 2026

We have a total of four sessions at NAM2026: three 90-minute parallel sessions on Early Science with the Rubin LSST, plus the Junior Associates Network lunch, discussed below. The parallel sessions comprise our usual mix of background/intro talks, demos and contributed science talks, as follows:

@Graham Smith and @Bob Mann

Executive Group elections

As annouced in Mike Watson’s email to the lusc-announce list on 25 June, we are currently soliciting applications for two seats on the Executive Group.

The Exec provides guidance to the project leadership on a more regular cadence than the Consortium Board and performs a quality assurance role relating to deliverables in the UK in-kind programme, as well as supporting administrative tasks within the Consortium that require scientific input, such as evaluating Pool Travel Fund requests. It holds one online meeting per month - lasting 60-90 mins - with some preparatory document-reading and some email activity between meetings, so the time commitment is typically 2-3 hours per month. The formal description of the role of the Exec Group is contained in the LSST:UK Governance document - see https://lsst-uk.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/1146928/governance.pdf 

Anyone may apply to stand for election to the Exec Group, with the exception of the members of the LUSC Project Delivery Group - i.e., the leaders of the STFC-funded in-kind contribution teams - while there are constraints on Exec Groups members voting as institutional reps on the Board, to maintain a separation of powers between the two bodies. Applications are particularly welcome from those who would increase the diversity of the LSST:UK leadership. 

Applications should be sent to the LSST:UK Project Managers (lusc_pm@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk) by 4pm on Friday 31 July 2026 and should comprise a one-side PDF document including the name, email address and institutional affiliation of the applicant, together with a brief summary of their involvement in LSST:UK and the wider LSST community to date and of their suitability for this role. These applications will be circulated to the members of the Consortium Board in the event of a contested election.

Anyone wishing to discuss details of the role or the application/election process is welcome to contact myself (rgm@roe.ac.uk) or Mike Watson (mgw@leicester.ac.uk).

@Bob Mann

New paper: Variability-selected AGN in dwarf galaxies – the incidence of AGN in dwarf and massive galaxies is similar 

MNRAS has recently published an article by @Sugata Kaviraj and collaborators on the topic of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in dwarf galaxies. The incidence and role of AGN in dwarfs is a key open question and one that can be answered by selecting (hundreds of thousands) of AGN using optical broadband variability using the LSST.  

This paper offers a roadmap study by using the VST-COSMOS survey to identify, via optical broadband variability, 30 AGN in nearby (z < 0.4⁠⁠) dwarf (10^8 M_SUN < M_STAR < 10^9.5 M_SUN⁠) galaxies. VST-COSMOS offers a 1 deg² survey footprint, a single visit depth of 24.6 mag and 68 r-band visits spanning an 11-yr temporal baseline. The single visit depth and temporal baseline of VST-COSMOS are comparable to that of LSST.

This study shows that, compared to a control sample matched in stellar mass and redshift, the dwarf AGN population shows an elevated fraction of early-type galaxies but a similar fraction of interacting objects, suggesting that interactions do not play a significant role in triggering these AGN. Dwarf AGN hosts do not show strong differences in their distances to nodes, filaments, and massive galaxies compared to the controls, which indicates that AGN triggering, at least in this sample, is not strongly correlated with environment.

Finally, by combining the true number of galaxies, the detectability of AGN and the measured numbers of variable sources in dwarf and massive (M_STAR > 10^9.5 M_SUN⁠⁠) galaxies, the study demonstrates that the incidence of AGN in dwarfs and massive galaxies is likely to be similar.  

Rubin broker teams out in force

June saw a meeting of the LSST alert brokers at the University of Paris-Saclay, with attendance from ALeRCE, AMPEL, ANTARES, Fink (the organisers), Pitt-Google and, of course, the LSST:UK broker, Lasair.

Brianna Smart came from Seattle to represent the Rubin project – she is the ambassador for the brokers. Unlike the usual parade of talks, the meeting was organised around collegial discussion of topics that were suggested in advance by the participants. 

Some far-reaching questions were covered. Recording provenance and reproducing analyses; how to help users who want to bring AI capability to their coding and science; sharing and collaboration on crossmatching existing catalogues; abstracting the idea of an alert filter with an interoperable language so that each broker can implement it their own way.

We discussed how potential users can easily find out enough about each broker to choose which one to work with; we discussed how bugs and issues can be reported to Rubin. Many technical questions and issues were resolved quickly once the relevant people are together in a room.

Lasair will be sharing its added value with other brokers, as well as using their added value through Lasair’s annotation capability: there will be the ALeRCE stamp and lightcurve classifiers, AMPEL classifiers, Fink science module output, and labelling variable stars from the SIMBAD database.

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Attendees of the Paris meeting of LSST alerts broker

 

@Roy Williams

Junior Associates Network update

Here are a few short updates from the LSST:UK Junior Associates Network (JAN) – a network organised by junior associates for junior associates.

The JAN at NAM

On Thursday 23 July the JAN will have its own lunchtime session at this year’s National Astronomy Meeting, during which members of the JAN leadership will provide an overview of the JAN, and open up the floor to discussion on how the JAN can best benefit its members. In addition to this, one of the JAN’s current co-chairs, Clara Pennock, will be giving an introduction to the JAN during the “Early science from the Rubin LSST” session on Wednesday 22 July; her talk is scheduled for 5pm.

If you are attending NAM and wish to learn more about the JAN, and/or wish to have a say in how it is run, then please feel free to come along to these sessions!

JANOC membership

As always, we welcome anyone interested in helping to run the JAN in any capacity (e.g. keeping track of membership, updating the Wiki, managing the Slack, organising online workshops and talks, or anything else you would like to do) to consider joining the JAN Organising Committee (JANOC) by contacting either of our current chairs, Clara Pennock (cpennock@roe.ac.uk) and Tom Wilson (T.J.Wilson@exeter.ac.uk). 

Feedback form for JAN leadership

A reminder that we have set up an anonymous feedback form here, so if you have any feedback for the JANEC and JANOC (whether it pertains to the topics above or to anything else!) then please feel free to do so by filling it in.

Additional information

More information on the JAN can be found on the Wiki, including sign-up forms for the mailing list, details of the various Slack channels available to JAs in the LSST:UK workspace, and minutes from the meetings of the JAN leadership team.

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

LSST:UK communications news

Webinar: How the Square Kilometre Array Observatory is partnering with indigenous communities

A number of modern observatories have been built on lands that were previously or are presently occupied by indigenous people. One such project is the Square Kilometre Array, the world’s largest radio telescope project currently under construction in Western Australia and South Africa. Through the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) the UK is making a significant contribution to this global endeavour.

A forthcoming webinar on 7 July 2026 from the UK SKA Regional Centre (UK SRC) shares what the project has learned about working with the local and Indigenous communities at both sites. Neither SKAO location had an existing audience of science supporters, therefore project engagement and the science have had to develop together.

Entitled Sharing the Sky and Stars: building authentic partnership with local and Indigenous communities, the webinar examines how partnerships with local communities are shaping the project. In Australia, the Wajarri Yamaji People gifted a Wajarri name for the observatory site where the SKA-Low telescope is being built. It’s now known as the Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory. Inyarrimanha ilgari bundara means 'Sharing the Sky and Stars'.

The second half of the webinar focuses on the art exhibition Cosmic Echoes, which brings together Indigenous and local artists from both sites to share their stories of the sky, the land and the cosmos. The presenters will explores why art, alongside science, is one of the most powerful tools for two-way engagement, giving communities agency over how their knowledge and culture are represented on the national and global stages.

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On 5 December 2022, the SKAO celebrated the start of on-site construction of its SKA-Low telescope at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory. Credit: SKAO

 

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SKA-Low antennas at the S8 station on the southern spiral arm of the SKA-Low telescope. Credit: SKAO/Max Alexander

 

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.