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8 July 2016: Project News LSST was well represented at the 2016 SPIE meeting on Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation in Edinburgh, Scotland last week with more than 40 LSST-related oral and poster presentations as well as an LSST booth in the exhibition hall. More information and images here. Feedback to the Workplace Culture plenary session at the LSST 2015 Project and Community Workshop included requests for concrete advice on how to improve workplace culture. In response, we have developed a special session scheduled for LSST 2016 at 9am on Tuesday, August 16: Rules of Engagement in Workplace Culture: How to Improve Trust & Communication - Trust and communication are essential factors to the success of any organization. This interactive plenary will address issues related to engaging others within the workplace, giving and receiving feedback, using feedback as a tool for self-awareness and accountability, and building trust in our work relationships. Registration for LSST2016 …

24 June 2016: Project News Many members of the LSST technical teams will be in Edinburgh, Scotland next week for an SPIE meeting on Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation; more than 40 LSST-related papers will be presented. Those interested are reminded that the LSST 2016 Project & Community Workshop registration deadline is July 25, same as the deadline for reserving a hotel room. The Tuesday agenda has changed to include an LSST Summary and Status plenary of interest to all as well as encore presentations by LSST team members returning from next week’s SPIE meeting. Now that the M1M3 mirror cell has been stress relieved, the cell has been relocated to the CAID Industries precision machining center. In parallel, the next effort will focus on completion of the M1M3 cart. The cart rides along embedded steel rails and will be used to transport the integrated mirror and cell system from the telescope to the …

17 June 2016: Project News Registration is open for the LSST 2016 Project and Community Workshop taking place in Tucson, AZ, August 15 – 19. The meeting sessions consist of three elements: plenary talks, breakout sessions, and an unconference. The plenary talks will be of broad interest to the scientific community, selected to be useful and informative both to newcomers and those familiar with LSST. We invite all community participants to help develop ideas for breakout sessions, and with assistance from the collaborations we have initiated some threads in the LSST community forum to capture the conversation. The starting point is here. Additional detail has been added to the online agenda and information about ground transportation has been added to the website. Several members of the Telescope & Site team traveled to Mestre, Italy the week of June 6th to conduct a Final Design Review (FDR) of the LSST dome with vendor EIE …

10 June 2016: Project News Registration for the LSST 2016 Project and Community Workshop is open and agenda details are coming together on the meeting website. The workshop is scheduled August 15 – 19 as follows: An all-day Commissioning Planning Workshop will take place on August 15th, along with an afternoon Science Advisory Committee meeting. Additional breakout rooms are available. A Joint NSF/DOE Status Review will take place August 16 – 18 involving LSST Project staff Tuesday (project status plenaries, open to Project and Community members) and Wednesday (breakout sessions). The Community Workshop will begin at 9 am on Wednesday and continue through Friday lunch. Community participants are encouraged to contribute ideas, until Wednesday June 15, for breakout sessions through discussion threads in the LSST community forum starting here. Wednesday plenary topics include “O/IR Resources Needed to Maximize LSST Science” (B. Willman), “A Science Collaboration Update” (L. Walkowicz), and “LSST’s Observing Strategy and …

3 June 2016: Project News The LSST 2016 Project and Community Workshop will take place the week of August 15th in Tucson, AZ, and the website is now OPEN for registration: https://project.lsst.org/meetings/lsst2016/. Community participants are encouraged to contribute ideas for breakout sessions at this Workshop, through discussion threads in the LSST community forum. The starting point is here. The Database team at SLAC hosted their 9th annual XLDB conference last week at the SLAC Linear Accelerator Laboratory. XLDB events are attended by users and providers who meet to discuss the real-world challenges, practical considerations, and nuts-and-bolts solutions in the realm of managing and analyzing extreme scale data sets. Presentations are available on the conference website. Several members of the Telescope & Site team will travel to Venice, Italy, next week for a Final Design Review of the Dome with vendor EIE Group. Meanwhile the Telescope Mount Assembly is moving along with construction of …

27 May 2016: Project News AURA is now a member of the Object Management Group (OMG), an international, open membership, not-for-profit technology standards consortium. OMG is responsible for the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) standard used by the LSST Systems Engineering team to conduct much of their work in a Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) environment. The LSST project is one of the heavier users of the language in a "real world" project setting. OMG Membership provides LSST the opportunity to share lessons learned as well as to influence future enhancements to the SysML standards. The LSST Science Advisory Committee has summarized its last several meetings in a series of recommendations and questions to the LSST Project Office; topics include the draft Science Operations plans, and details of Level 1 alerts and the longer-term availability of data releases to the community. Twenty members of the LSST team met in Tucson this week for a …

20 May 2016: Project News This week on Cerro Pachón concrete was poured to form the lower portion of the telescope pier; all concrete work is scheduled for completion by the end of July. Also, the first three containers of materials for the PFlow facility lift have arrived on site. Registration for the LSST 2016 Project & Community Workshop will open next week. An agenda sufficiently detailed to plan travel will be distributed by email and the website will go live. The SQuaRE Team within Data Management (DM) has released LSST the Docs, a new documentation publishing platform. LSST the Docs will allow DM to create and iterate on documentation more effectively, while also giving readers a better experience. DM representatives engaged with the IVOA community at the IVO Northern Spring Meeting in South Africa last week. Both LSST and IVOA are interested in collaborating, using IVOA interfaces to support LSST needs. Three …

13 May 2016: Project News According to Law Decree #353 from March 16, 2016, Chile will go into Winter time schedule this coming weekend. At midnight on Saturday May 14, all clocks in continental Chile and the Chilean Antártica will be set back by one hour (to 11:00 pm, Saturday 14th). Please consider this time change when making plans for international meetings, video or phone calls. The time difference between Chile and Tucson will be 3 hours. The next face-to-face meeting of LSST’s Science Advisory Committee will be on Monday August 15, co-located with the All Hands Meeting. The committee’s job is to represent the wider scientific community and to advise the LSST Project Office as decisions are made throughout the LSST construction phase. The LSST Project Science Team (PST) met in Seattle from May 9th-11th. Topics discussed during this meeting included: the Data Products Definition Document, the image quality error budget, image …

6 May 2016: Project News Over forty participations attended a three day workshop on the O/IR Capabilities Needed to Maximize LSST science at Biosphere 2, May 2nd- 4th. This workshop was sponsored by the Kavli Foundation and endorsed by NSF AST. Joan Najita (NOAO) and Beth Willman chaired the workshop and related study (http://www.noao.edu/meetings/lsst-oir-study/). Study Group leads were David Trilling (Northern Arizona University, LSST Solar System science collaboration Chair), Suzanne Hawley (University of Washington, LSSTC executive board member), Josh Simon (Carnegie Observatories), Doug Finkbeiner (Harvard), Ryan Foley (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Greg Rudnick (University of Kansas), and Jeff Newman (University of Pittsburgh, LSST DESC Deputy Spokesperson). A summary report from the study and workshop will be released in late summer.An impressive picture of a completed deck plate manufactured by Tucson vendor CAID Industries, who is building our M1 M3 mirror cell, can be found in the Telescope Gallery. Systems Engineering trade studies cleared …

29 April 2016: Project News The T&S group met with designers from CAID, Inc. to perform a hazard analysis of the M1M3 cart system. CAID is under contract to provide final design of the M1M3 cart, along with the M1M3 Cell Weldment. This meeting provided a good opportunity to cooperatively discuss functional requirements to ensure safe operation will be provided by the design of the system and choice of components. New pictures of ongoing Telescope Mount Assembly Fabrication (TMA) in Spain can be found in the Telescope Gallery. M. Juric, interim Data Management (DM) Lead, and J. Becla, interim Project Manager for DM traveled to Tucson this week for productive sessions with the Science Quality and Reliability Engineering (SQuaRE) team and the Project Office. The Camera team announced its award for filter coatings to Materion Precision Optics in Westford MA. See, http://www.materion.com/Precisionoptics Personnel Notes David Kittelson has joined the Central Administrative Services (CAS) …

22 April 2016: Project News The Project Office supported the AURA Management Council for LSST (AMCL) meeting last week in Washington, DC. Steve Kahn also gave an overview of LSST status to the LSSTC Board; his presentation has been posted on our public website. An AURA Board of Directors Meeting and the Annual Meeting of Member Representatives took place this week in Tucson. As part of the program, each AURA Center gives an informal Open House presentation. LSST used this opportunity to premiere our “Day in the Life of LSST Construction” video, a compilation of 170 images submitted by individuals working on LSST on March 23, 2016. Members of the Telescope team traveled to the Moog/CSA Engineering facility in Mountain View, CA to conduct the Integration and Test Plan Review for the hexapod and rotator system contract. The team also held a kickoff meeting in Tucson at CAID Industries, Inc., to review their …

8 April 2016: Project News LSST project members are preparing for an active week in Washington, DC, April 11 – 15. Meetings taking place include those of the LSST Corporation (LSSTC) Board and Executive Board, as well as AURA’s Management Council for LSST (AMCL). LSSTC Institutional Member representatives and their government relations officers will make visits to Capitol Hill on Tuesday and then attend a reception in the Rayburn Building that evening hosted by LSSTC and AURA, for guests to learn more about LSST. Assorted meetings between LSST management, government, and agency officials round out the week. The LSST Science Advisory Committee (SAC) met on Monday, April 4. The main topic of discussion was a presentation from Deputy Director Beth Willman, on the plans for and scope of LSST Science Operations. Beth is looking for feedback from the SAC on all aspects of this question by early summer; the SAC's next meeting will …

1 April 2016: Project News Following the Python in Astronomy 2016 meeting held last week in Seattle, members of LSST Data Management met with people from the AstroPy community to discuss areas of overlap and synergy between the two projects. AstroPy is a community driven effort to build core libraries for data processing in astronomy; compatibility with AstroPy is desirable for delivery of L3 data products. Read more in the community forum here. DM working groups for science pipelines, science user interface, and data product design (hardware) all met this week, with the goal of reviewing, refining, and prioritizing requirements and design details. On Cerro Pachón this week, the first pieces of the Dome have been received and are safely stowed until they can be embedded in the concrete pier. Parts of the PFlow facility lift are leaving from Wisconsin this week for early site integration. Dome vendor EIE has representatives on the …

25 March 2016: Project News A Review of the Camera integration and test process plans took place this week at SLAC. This technical and programmatic review was to assess the overall integration process flow as well as the planning supporting the work and designs for the equipment, software and databases to be used. March 23rd was “A Day in the Life of LSST” with everyone working on LSST encouraged to take an interesting picture of something representative of their work to chronicle the LSST construction. The 150+ images received will be assembled into a slide show highlighting the many aspects of LSST construction as well as the people doing the work. LSST Data Management has started optimizing and improving techniques, processes and tools for communicating inside the team as well as with the outside world. A technical note will be released shortly. The LSST Science Advisory Committee (SAC) met on Monday, March 21. …

18 March 2016: Project News S. Jacoby traveled to La Serena, Chile last week to participate in the second annual Chile-US Astronomy Education Outreach Summit with more than 60 other representatives of astronomical and educational organizations and facilities in Chile. The Summit involved administrators, formal and informal educators from Chile and the US, university scientists, funding agencies, the US Embassy in Chile, regional government leaders, and representatives from the professional scientific observatories as well as the smaller community observatories and the astrotourism industry in Chile. Products of the summit include the construction of a network of astronomy educators, and a “roadmap document” to help guide and promote future collaboration and coordinated of astronomy EPO activities in Chile, and between its international partners. A final draft is expected sometime in May of 2016. J. Becla, interim Project Manager for Data Management (DM), reports that members of the DM team traveled to NCSA last week …

11 March 2016: Project News We have received the Status Review report from the NSF. Management is reviewing it before sending it out more broadly next week. We also received the EVMS report and as we anticipated, we have some actions but there were no critical findings. Our next status review will be in August during the All-Hands Meeting and will be a joint NSF/DOE review. There is lots of activity on Cerro Pachón – lower enclosure excavations have been approved; plates from the dome manufacturer in Italy have arrived on-site; and the TMA team from Spain will be visiting the site in Chile to start integration planning. The mirror reflective coating system contract has been signed by AURA and Von Ardenne in preparation for a kickoff meeting in April. The DM transition leadership has started site visits with the distributed team starting with SLAC and NCSA this week. Upcoming 2016 Meetings with …

4 March 2016: Projects News Minutes from the February 15th LSST Science Advisory committee phone meeting have been posted. Key topics of discussion were the plans for LSST science operations, and the current status of the Operations Simulator and metrics to determine the scientific impact of various cadence algorithms. The Data Management (DM) Leadership Team is fully engaged and working groups have been established to refine the high level designs in specific areas of DM. Additional information available on the LSST Community Forum. The construction crew on Cerro Pachón is making room for incoming hardware, including 16 sections of steel track which will sit on top of the lower enclosure pier to support the wheels that rotate the dome structure. The Camera Corner Raft was successfully evaluated at a Final Design Review earlier this week. Corporation News Congratulations to Marcel Agüeros on receipt of the Presidential Early Career Award. Marcel is an Assistant …

26 February 2016: Projects News The 2016 LSST Joint Technical Meeting concluded on Wednesday, after bringing 150 members of the project team together for three days of lively discussion and productive work at the Chaminade in Santa Cruz, CA. The management team stayed over an extra day to discuss topics of project communication and culture, including implementation of an ombudsperson program to provide a trusted system for reporting workplace issues within the Project. The Group photo has been tweeted – check it out! The “continuous pour” on Cerro Pachón, filling the pier evacuation with concrete, finished ahead of schedule and with total success! This 31-hour non-stop effort was completed by a hard-working team on the summit with cooperation of the full moon and our astronomical neighbors, Gemini South and SOAR, which we very much appreciate! Images have been posted to our Facebook page and the LSST image gallery, which continues to be updated …

19 February 2016: Project News Changes are being made in leadership of the LSST Data Management (DM) team, a team that’s been led over the past few years by Jeff Kantor as Project Manager, Mario Juric as Project Scientist, and most recently K-T Lim as Project Engineer. Following last week’s successful NSF status review, and reflecting the desire of all involved, Jeff will be stepping aside to take on various project-wide management challenges, K-T will be relieved of his additional Project Engineer role and return to focus on being the Data Management System Architect. Mario will take over as DM lead in the interim period, assisted by LSST Project Scientist Zeljko Ivezic, temporarily assuming the core science-related DM Project Scientist duties, and Jacek Becla serving as the interim DM Project Manager. A world-wide search will be conducted to select a new DM Project Manager to replace Jeff, who has provided more than a …

12 February 2016: Project News The Operations Planning Review wraps up this afternoon after a productive two days exploring observatory operations and staffing with an experienced, engaged panel. The panel was charged with evaluating our framework and scope for the LSST operations plan and our (approach to, steady-state) FTE estimates. The NSF Status Review, and parallel evaluation of the LSST Earned Value Management System, completed mid-week with a positive debrief presentation from the committee. Written comments will follow with recommendations for consideration. Our Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA) subcontractor Asturfeito in Spain has begun to produce steel plates for the elevation hydrostatic bearings. LSST Director Steve Kahn and Deputy Director Beth Willman are both Keynote Speakers at the Future Sky Surveys and Big Data Workshop, taking place April 25 – 29, 2016 at KASI, Daejoen, Korea. Inspection of the installation of rebar in preparation for the pier foundation concrete pour on Cerro Pachón is …