Description
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will be a major pillar of the UK astronomy programme for the next two decades. Its unprecedented combination of spatial, spectral and temporal coverage enable it to probe a broad range of astrophysical phenomena, across all areas of astronomy, from near-Earth asteroids to distant quasars, the dark energy believed to drive the Universe’s accelerating expansion, and much more.
NAM2025 coincides with a major milestone of broad impact across the UK and international communities: the first release of on-sky Rubin data to data rights holders. These data have already been obtained during observations with the commissioning camera in late 2024. Science Verification observations with LSSTCam are also expected to be well underway in summer 2025.
We request four 90-minute sessions and one lunch session. We aim to encourage and enable the widest possible participation and engagement with the early data, with a particular focus on early career researchers.
We aim for a balance between five themes, across these five sessions:
$\bullet$ Introduction: Rubin/LSST, LSST:UK, and the international Science Collaborations
$\bullet$ Early career science: plans for early and future science with the Rubin data
$\bullet$ Tutorials and examples: how to access, filter, and manipulate Rubin data
$\bullet$ Community insights: technical and scientific preparations by LSST:UK researchers
$\bullet$ Engagement: an introduction to the LSST:UK engagement programme
In addition to talks from across the community, the sessions will include training, Q+A for early career researchers, a hack session, and a facilitated discussion.