@VRubinObs@astrodon.social
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VRubinObs

@VRubinObs@astrodon.social

Get ready for a new era in astronomy and astrophysics with Rubin Observatory! #astronomy #engineering #Astrodon #discovery

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Scanning…✅

Rubin Observatory is a “survey telescope”—but what does that mean?

Telescopes come in many forms. Some are built to study small areas of sky, in fine detail and high resolution.

Survey telescopes, however, map the cosmos by imaging the entire night sky🧵

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Join our quest for knowledge! 💭

Rubin will address some of the biggest questions scientists have about the Universe - from the Solar System, to our own Milky Way galaxy, to the billions of other galaxies out there. 🧵

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3…2…1…🚀

We’re bringing the Universe to YOU!

We're officially unveiling our suite of brand new interactive & online experiences designed specially for you to be able to explore Rubin Observatory technology, science, and people!

https://rubinobservatory.org/news/universe-to-you

VRubinObs,
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This marks the official public launch of the Rubin Education & Public Outreach program 🥳

The entire program is online and optimized for mobile devices—all you need is an internet connection and a mobile device to be able to participate and explore!

VRubinObs,
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You can find everything online at https://rubinobservatory.org in both English & Spanish—including an image gallery, animated videos, education resources for teachers, an online game👀, & all the information you’ll need about Rubin.

with us!

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Time for a reintroduction!

Vera C. Rubin Observatory is a new facility being built on Cerro Pachón in Chile (you might know us by our former name: LSST). When complete, Rubin will image the sky every 3-4 nights for 10 years, using an 8.4m telescope & 3200 MP car-sized camera! 🧵

VRubinObs,
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Rubin will take repeated images of the visible sky, so it’ll be great at finding objects that have changed in brightness (like supernovae) or position (like asteroids).

Rubin’s light-collecting power & sensitive camera will also detect tens of billions of new galaxies & stars!

VRubinObs,
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With all of these different types of observations in one huge dataset (60 petabytes in total, to be exact), Rubin is poised to enable scientists to address some of their biggest questions about the Universe and revolutionize our understanding of astronomy and astrophysics!

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Picture this: it's 2am.

...stick with us.

You're sitting in the mid-night calm, with a few colleagues and a dozen computer monitors.

A couple times a minute, the data on the screens refresh as new images come in from the huge telescope with its car-sized camera above.

VRubinObs,
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You sip your coffee, because even though the telescope moves automatically, you have to stay awake to check the data & do other nightly tasks.

Occasionally, you take a break to go outside. The Milky Way sprawls overhead, its small companion galaxies visible as separate clouds...

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Wistfully dreaming of flying away faster than light...

No, this image isn't warp speed. Star trails like these happen when Earth's rotation smears a star's light into a streak.

While astronomers avoid them in scientific images, they do make for striking !

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Whew, that's some heavy lifting 💪

Our staff recently moved the giant 72-ton mirror cell assembly from the observatory maintenance floor up to the dome floor.

There, they installed it onto the telescope mount for the first time!

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Achievement unlocked! 😎

Rubin Observatory's telescope support structure is now ready for the full-size replicas of the 8.4-meter mirror and other optical components, including the stand-in for the giant 3200-megapixel camera! 🧵

🔗: https://noirlab.edu/public/news/noirlab2312/

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We're two observing specialists to join our staff in Chile!

Want to help make Rubin science happen? We have openings for both early- and mid-career observers!

Early-career: ls.st/an7
Mid-career: ls.st/mco

Apply by June 16th!

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We're feeling exposed 🫣

Our staff recently removed a yellow cross-shaped "surrogate" mass from the telescope mount to make way for the real primary mirror cell!

The primary mirror isn't installed yet, though. For now, the cell has a metal surrogate mirror to use in testing.

The Rubin mirror cell surrogate mass on the platform lift. The surrogate mass is a criss-crossing structure of yellow steel. The mass is about as tall as a person, but several times larger in the other two dimensions. The observatory platform lift is a huge, open elevator used to transport large equipment. The lift is at its highest level, meaning that the portion of the building roof above it has been raised as well
Rubin's telescope mount suspended on its steel axis with the yellow cross-shaped surrogate mass attached beneath. The mount is an cylindrical open structure made of teal steel. Two large rings at the top are separated by a gap and held up by beams on the side. The mount base is a much thicker steel block with a circular opening for the eventual primary mirror.

VRubinObs,
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Why do we need surrogate masses?

Telescopes are sensitive instruments that need to be precisely balanced. Otherwise, they won't function properly (and we can't perform needed tests!).

Even huge telescopes like ours can be moved by hand when balanced!

https://youtu.be/brFt7hBmt4s

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Hello world! We are Rubin Observatory, a new up-and-coming ground-based observatory currently under construction on Cerro Pachón in Chile.

Looking forward to sharing all the incredible engineering, science, and people of our observatory with all of you here!

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