Announcement: Vera C. Rubin Observatory

7 July 2025: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory is thrilled to introduce Orbitviewer, a groundbreaking new web app that brings the dynamic movement of objects in our Solar System to life. Using real data from Rubin Observatory analyzed by the Minor Planet Center, Orbitviewer provides an unprecedented way to explore the structure of our cosmic backyard in three dimensions and in real time. Rubin Observatory is jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. Rubin is a joint Program of NSF NOIRLab and DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, who will cooperatively operate Rubin. Orbitviewer is designed to showcase the incredible number of Solar System objects revealed by Rubin Observatory. In its first year, Rubin is expected to reveal more objects in our Solar System than have been discovered in the past 150 years combined. As Rubin Observatory embarks on its decade-long Legacy Survey of …

3 July 2025: Project and Science News On June 23, 2025, Rubin Observatory held its highly anticipated First Look event, marked by a press conference in Washington, D.C., and a global livestream. Zeljko Ivezic, Director of Rubin Observatory Construction, unveiled the first breathtaking images captured with the LSST Camera, showcasing Rubin's unique capabilities. Representatives from numerous media outlets attended the press conference in person or via Zoom, and Rubin stories appeared in publications around the world in the days before and following the event. A recording of the press conference presentation is available on YouTube. More than 350 First Look watch parties, organized at locations all over the world, brought together Rubin staff, scientists, students, and enthusiasts to celebrate this historic moment. The gatherings broadcast the press conference livestream, and many also featured Rubin science talks or panel discussions from local attendees. These coordinated events ensured that First Look was not just a …

18 June 2025: Project and Science News Rubin First Look, the online event revealing the first Rubin images to the world, is just days away (June 23rd). A livestream of the press conference in Washington, DC will be shown on YouTube (starting at 11:00 a.m. ET) and Watch Parties are scheduled in many locations. Visit rubinobservatory.org after the press conference to explore all Rubin’s First Look image products in more detail. In addition to First Look, June 23rd will also be Rubin’s next “Day in the Life” image/video collection day. Whatever your day looks like, we hope you’ll snap a photo or record a quick video during your workday and share it with us. We’ll compile them for our ninth “Day in the Life of Rubin Construction” video, to highlight the incredible range of people and activities that make Rubin such a unique and vital place to work. Check out past videos and …

10 June 2025: It is our great pleasure to invite you to join us in celebration as we reveal the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s First Look images on 23 June 2025. Gather with present and former staff, scientific colleagues and collaborators, friends, and family to share in this major milestone. This is the first step on the path to the incredible Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) — a 10 year survey of the southern sky to be completed by the Rubin Observatory and its scientific community. The Rubin Observatory First Look press conference will be held at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C. The event will be live streamed to hundreds of Watch Parties around the globe, including one right here in Tucson, which will be held at the Grand Challenges Building on the campus of the University of Arizona (convenient parking can be found in the Cherry …

28 May 2025: Project and Science News Mark your calendars! Rubin imagery will be revealed to the world for the first time on June 23rd, 2025. This event, called Rubin First Look, will include a livestream of the official press conference in Washington, DC starting at 11:00 a.m. EDT. Watch parties are being organized in many locations, and anyone can participate virtually in this historic event. Confirmed details are available in this news post, and additional updates will be shared on rubinobservatory.org. Preparations are ongoing for the Rubin Community Workshop, to be held in Tucson, AZ on July 28 - August 1. Everyone who applied for a talk or poster should now have received an email with their session assignment and a link to presenter information. Late poster applications are still being accepted. Follow the latest updates on the Rubin Community Workshop meeting website. Those attending at the upcoming 246th American Astronomical Society …

23 May 2025: We invite you to attend the live stream of NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s First Look event, taking place on 23 June 2025 at 11:00 a.m. EDT. At this international celebration the Rubin Observatory team will unveil the observatory’s first spectacular images. The event will be live streamed via YouTube in English and Spanish. Links to the live streams will be made available on rubinobservatory.org. Want to attend an in-person celebration? Hundreds of venues around the globe will be hosting watch parties that include a public viewing of the live stream. Check out the Rubin First Look Watch Party website to find a location near you. NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory is jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science . The First Look event will feature the unveiling of a set of large, ultra-high-definition images and videos that showcase Rubin’s …

14 May 2025: Project and Science News The date for Rubin Observatory’s First Look event — when Rubin’s first images will be publicly revealed — is still being finalized and will be shared soon. In the meantime, we invite you to sign up to host a Rubin First Look Watch Party, centered around a livestream of the image unveiling. More details can be found on Rubin’s Watch Party web page. Don’t forget to register ASAP for this year’s Rubin Community Workshop, to be held in Tucson, AZ, on July 28 - August 1. Details and a link to register can be found on the Rubin Community Workshop meeting website. The Rubin Media Kit is now available in Spanish, thanks to translation assistance from the Communications and Outreach Office of the Center of Excellence in Astrophysics and Related Technologies (CATA). The Spanish-language media kit can be found on rubinobservatory.org, along with an updated version …

28 April 2025: Project and Science News The Rubin team took the first on-sky engineering data with the LSST Camera on April 15th, shortly after darkness fell on Cerro Pachón. The first images were taken with the i-band filter. Thanks to Rubin’s successful on-sky campaign using the Commissioning Camera, the telescope optical alignments were remarkably close to optimal before even looking at the sky. Along with the excellent initial performance of the full Observatory optical system, the LSST Camera, its supporting refrigeration equipment, and the data acquisition and control systems all demonstrated smooth operation, just a few weeks after installation. The Data Management system successfully transported and processed the 3-gigapixel images at the US Data Facility within about a minute of acquiring the exposures. More details about this achievement are available on community.lsst.org, and photos of Rubin’s various distributed teams celebrating the event are available in the Gallery. During the upcoming period of …

24 April 2025: The NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory and its partners are excited be announcing the release of the first images at the First Look unveiling event June 23 at 11:00 am EDT with a public livestream (in English and Spanish). During the First Look event, the comprehensive press release will be published, featuring a large set of ultra-high-definition images and videos showcasing Rubin’s extraordinary capabilities to the world for the first time. This will mark the beginning of a new era in astronomy, and we invite you to take part (sign up using this form). NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory is jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science (DOE/SC). Rubin Observatory is a joint Program of NSF NOIRLab and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), who will cooperatively operate Rubin. Rubin First Look Watch Parties are expected to take place around …

2 April 2025: Project and Science News Registration for the 2025 Rubin Community Workshop, to be held in Tucson July 28 - August 1, is now open. Please visit the meeting website for more information and a link to register. Since the LSST Camera was installed on the telescope in early March, the team on the summit has made good progress testing and preparing the camera to go on-sky later this month. The pumped chiller system (which cools the raft electronics) has reached -40°C, and both the cryo refrigeration system (which cools the camera's CCDs) and the CCDs will be turned on this week. Testing of the camera shutter and filter exchange system are also ongoing. The summit team conducted dome endurance tests on March 27th, focusing on evaluating the performance of the dome’s capacitor banks. The test began with a long 30-degree slew, during which telemetry data was successfully recorded in the …

19 March 2025: Project and Science News The LSST Camera was successfully installed on the Simonyi Survey Telescope in early March, and the news was announced to the public on March 12th through a joint NSF–DOE press release. The LSST Camera was the final major component to be installed, and this exciting milestone marks the completion of the full and final optical system. Rubin Observatory is now in its final phase of testing, with on-sky observations starting soon. Registration for the 2025 Rubin Community Workshop, to be held in Tucson July 28 - August 1, is now open. Please visit the meeting website for more information and a link to register. Rubin leadership and staff joined representatives from Rubin’s operating partners and funding agencies in Washington, DC on March 3-4 for the fourth and final in-person coordination workshop to discuss Rubin First Look — the first public release of Rubin images scheduled for …

5 March 2025: Project & Science News On the summit, the Camera team removed the lens cover of the LSST Camera, cleaned the primary lens (L1), and replaced the cover on February 19th. This video shows technician Claudio Araya spraying the camera lens with CO2 "snow," which pushes the dust off and then evaporates without leaving any residue. The same equipment and technique is also used to clean the mirrors for the Simonyi Survey Telescope and the Rubin Auxiliary Telescope. See a video of the camera lens cleaning on YouTube. As reported in the last Digest, the Camera team mounted the LSST Camera on the camera rotator in early February. Since then, the team has been conducting off-telescope rotation tests, which are featured in another new video on YouTube. LSSTCam will be installed on the telescope very soon, keep an eye on rubinobservatory.org and our social media channels for this news. On-sky observations …

12 February 2025: Project & Science News The LSST Camera was removed from the summit clean room on February 4th and then moved from its support stand to the camera rotator the following day. This marks the first time that the LSST Camera has been integrated with (a part of) the telescope! While the Commissioning Camera — which was previously installed on the camera rotator — has the same interface, the LSST Camera is outfitted with a new cooling system. This system includes vacuum insulated hoses which need to be properly managed during the motion from the camera cable wrap (CCW), camera rotator and the camera hexapod. Over the next couple of weeks, the Camera team will be testing the performance of this additional system on the camera rotator motion systems. Photos of the LSST Camera move are available in the Gallery. The LSST Camera group has released a technote (https://sitcomtn-148.lsst.io) on results …

29 January 2025: Project & Science News Rubin representatives had a busy and productive week at the American Astronomical Society Winter Meeting (AAS 245) in National Harbor, MD on January 12-16. Rubin’s exhibit booth hosted many enthusiastic visitors and the Rubin Town Hall, held on January 14th, was very well attended. Slides from the Town Hall presentation are available on Zenodo. Concurrent with the Town Hall, Rubin released a website article about the successful conclusion of tests with Rubin’s Commissioning Camera, along with an engineering test image. Along with the positive response from those in the room, the news got immediate amplification from a Space.com reporter attending the session. A panel of Rubin experts presented to an audience of media and science writers at AAS 245. Sandrine Thomas, Leanne Guy, Yusra AlSayaad, and Beth Willman provided an overview of Rubin Observatory and upcoming Rubin science, managing Rubin data, and Rubin’s global participation and …

14 January 2025: After ten years of construction, NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory is less than one year away from the start of its transformational movie of our changing night sky. In preparation for this monumental production, the observatory has just successfully completed a series of full-system tests using an engineering test camera. This accomplishment sets the stage for the last step of Rubin construction: installation of the 3200-megapixel LSST Camera (LSSTCam) — the largest digital camera in the world. Rubin Observatory is jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. Rubin is a joint Program of NSF NOIRLab and DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, who will cooperatively operate Rubin. The engineering test camera, or commissioning camera (ComCam), has a mosaic of nine CCD sensors with a total of 144 megapixels. It covers an area about twice that of a full Moon. Over the …

20 December 2024: Project and Science News Rubin has had a busy and eventful year, and 2024 is drawing to a close. We wish everyone a safe and restful holiday to prepare for next year, and for the approaching finish line of Rubin Construction. We hope you enjoy Rubin’s 2024 holiday card. We hope to see many of you at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) winter meeting (AAS 245) in National Harbor, MD on January 12-16. The Rubin Town Hall is scheduled for Tuesday, January 14th. Rubin will also be presenting a panel for media and science writers during the meeting, please check the AAS schedule for the date and time. And don’t forget to stop by Rubin’s exhibit booth (#105A in the NSF Pavilion)! Rubin leadership and staff joined representatives from NOIRLab, AURA, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science for …

27 November 2024: Project and Science News Project reminder: November 28-29 are Thanksgiving US holidays for Rubin with US staff likely unavailable/offline. The Commissioning team continues to share technical updates on the progress of on-sky commissioning activities using the Commissioning Camera (ComCam) on the Rubin Community Forum and the #commissioning-updates Slack channel. Highlights curated for a non-technical audience will also be posted on Rubin’s social media accounts. Rubin staff provided several impactful activities at the recent annual meeting of La Sociedad Chilena de Astronomía (SOCHIAS), held November 11-15 in Arica, Chile’s northernmost city. Education and Public Outreach team members Fernanda Urrutia and Ardis Herrold led a teacher training session on Rubin’s “Coloreando el Universo” investigation, which was attended by a roomful of enthusiastic educators. Holger Drass, Verification Systems Engineer for Rubin, gave a talk about Rubin and supported outreach efforts at the AURA-O exhibit booth. The Chilean scientific community continues to show a …

6 November 2024: Project and Science News Rubin achieved a historic milestone on October 24th, 2024, when the summit team captured the first on-sky data with Rubin’s Commissioning Camera and transferred it from Chile to the US Data Facility at SLAC. This successful end-to-end engineering test is the product of decades of dedication and innovation by Rubin Project members and the community. Read the details in Rubin’s public announcement on rubinobservatory.org. Additional visuals are available in the Gallery. During the periods of on-sky commissioning using the Commissioning Camera (ComCam) and LSST Camera (LSSTCam), Rubin Observatory plans to share brief technical updates on the progress of on-sky commissioning activities with the Rubin science community on a roughly weekly cadence. These posts will complement existing communications products. Posts will appear on the LSST Community forum in the News category with the commissioning-updates tag and on the LSSTC Slack workspace in the new #commissioning-updates channel. Rubin …

28 October 2024: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory passed its first end-to-end engineering test using a low-resolution testing camera known as the Commissioning Camera. The Commissioning Camera will later be replaced with the much higher resolution LSST Camera, the largest digital camera ever built, which Rubin Observatory will use to conduct the most comprehensive data-gathering mission in the history of astronomy — the 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time. Rubin is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. The mood in the observatory control room was electric as Rubin’s first on-sky data were captured by the test camera and transferred successfully from the observatory in Chile to the U.S. Data Facility at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California. This moment was the culmination of decades of hard work by the Rubin team. Those present in Chile gathered at the base of the Simonyi Telescope …

14 October 2024: In early October, the team on Cerro Pachón installed Rubin Observatory's 8.4-meter combined primary/tertiary mirror (M1M3) on the Simonyi Survey Telescope for the first time. This is a huge achievement in itself, and — with all three mirrors and the commissioning camera (ComCam) now in place — Rubin Observatory officially has a complete telescope! After getting this configuration of the telescope on-sky and conducting several months of testing, the summit team will remove the 144-megapixel ComCam and install the final science component: the car-sized, 3200 megapixel LSST Camera. Getting the M1M3 on the telescope involved months of intensive work and contributions from many members of the Rubin team as well as contracted workers on the summit. As always, safety was the top priority in all activities to protect personnel and to prevent damage to the delicate glass mirror. Prior to the installation (and after being coated with protected silver in …