After the highly successful Rubin First Look press conference on June 23, 2025 in Washington D.C., where the first Rubin images were shared with the press and public, the Project focused on science verification and validation, and preparations for a series of Construction Completeness Reviews.

Science verification on-sky data taking was just completed on September 20, and resulted in a less extensive data set at the quality of LSST than originally planned. As a result, Data Preview and Data Release schedules are being re-optimized with external advice provided by Science Advisory Committee and Users Committee. 

The transfer of authority from the construction project to the operations team will happen on October 24, during Construction Completeness Review 3 to be held in Chile. The Data Management Standards Reviews have been completed and confirmed by NSF and DOE. The public posting of the observing schedule is also confirmed, and Rubin is now in the 80-hour image embargo period. Criteria to start the LSST are given in ls.st/RTN-093 and Operations readiness review will provide a comprehensive basis for decision to start theLSST later this year.  

The UW Alert Production Team celebrated the First Look milestone with several DiRAC-hosted events.  Soon after, Rubin released Data Preview 1 containing commissioning data from the smaller ComCam camera.  DiRAC hosted a successful DP1 sprint, which allowed members of the AP team to share knowledge with other scientists in the department and resulted in several research notes and papers.  Since then, the team has continued to commission the image processing pipelines in preparation for public alert release and reporting discoveries of solar system objects to the Minor Planet Center.

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About Željko Ivezić

Željko Ivezić (pronounced something like Gel-co Eva-zich) obtained undergraduate degrees in mechanical engineering and physics from the University of Zagreb, Croatia, in 1990 and 1991. He obtained Ph.D. in physics from the University of Kentucky in 1995, where he worked on dust radiative transfer models and wrote the code Dusty. He moved on to Princeton University in 1997 to work on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and took a professorship at the University of Washington, Seattle, in 2004. Željko’s scientific interests are in detection, analysis and interpretation of electromagnetic radiation from astronomical sources. His current focus is the Rubin Observatory and Legacy Survey of Space and Time, for which he serves as the Construction Project Director.

About Eric Bellm

Eric Belm is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Washington and a Fellow of the DIRAC Institute. He is leading the development of major portions of two new large optical time-domain surveys. He is the Alert Production Science Lead for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory as well as Survey Scientist for the Zwicky Transient Facility. Eric is using optical variability data to search for hidden populations of neutron star and black hole binaries in our Galaxy. His research includes observation, instrumentation, and large-scale data analysis.

UW Lecture: A New Era of Cosmic Discovery with the Rubin Observatory

The DiRAC Institute hosted a special event at the University of Washington to celebrate Rubin’s First Look, featuring a public lecture at Kane Hall. Recording of the lecture is below.

Hello friends,

I hope your spring has been positive, and that you got a chance to experience the Solar Eclipse in April and the historic Northern Lights showing a couple weeks ago!

I’m excited to share that the LSST Camera has arrived at the Rubin summit in Chile! The official word came late yesterday that the camera made the flight from California, and was driven up the observatory a few days ago. This is the last major component of the Rubin Observatory, and it will soon be integrated into the Simonyi Survey Telescope to begin calibration and testing. We at DiRAC, UW Astronomy, and the whole Rubin/LSST community are thrilled to see the hardware finally on site!

As you know, this is the largest digital camera of its kind ever created, and will be in near-constant use for a decade as we search the sky for asteroids, supernovae, and the unknown unknowns! As the first test data starts to arrive, and with Survey operations starting next year, I am SO EXCITED to see the discoveries that will rewrite our textbooks. 

Beyond software and science development, we’re busy recruiting and continuing to build the team that will make these groundbreaking discoveries possible at UW.  We are in the midst of grant writing and fundraising to allow us to bring a new cohort of diverse and energetic scientists to Seattle, and I invite you all to continue to be involved in this journey with us. 

Finally, thank you for your support and enthusiasm over the past 6 years.  I am always so heartened to see how many people share our vision to understand the Universe through data.

Keep looking up!

Jim Davenport

Associate Director, DiRAC

In October 2023, our team, members of the DiRAC Advisory Board, and DiRAC’s longtime supporters visited the Rubin Observatory in Chile. It has been an amazing trip! An opportunity to ponder on the terrific achievements from building the structure in the harsh environment to the marvel of engineering. We are excited to look ahead and anticipate discoveries once the Rubin Observatory starts its observations in 2025.

Sign up for the upcoming series of DiRAC events where we will share with the community how this work will change astronomy as we know it today, the local UW involvement and research, and the updates on the Rubin Observatory progress! The event format ranges from the Planetarium Experiences, the Lightning Talks, to the Lab Tours.

A photo gallery with highlights from the Rubin Observatory visit in October 2023 can be found here.

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On November 16th, 2023 we would like to invite you to the DiRAC Planetarium Event “A New Era of Discovery: Mapping the Universe with the Rubin Observatory”. The event will take place at the UW Planetarium.

Join us for an evening of discussion and learning with UW astronomers building the largest sky survey in human history. Please reserve your spot here, there are limited number of seats available.

We’re at the brink of a new age of survey-driven discovery in astronomy. Where before we could only study a handful of objects at a time, new detectors, algorithms, and telescopes will soon allow us – and the entire world – to monitor billions.

The flagship of this era will be the Rubin Observatory, set to open in Chile in 2025. Rubin will continuously gather data for over 20Bn stars, 20Bn galaxies, with billions of asteroid observations. In importance, it is a ground-based peer of the Webb space telescope.

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In about a year, DiRAC researchers, students, and citizen scientists will use Rubin to scan the Solar System for hazardous asteroids, discover interstellar comets, and search for new planets in our Solar System. Our codes will map the Milky Way, detect the most energetic explosions in the universe, and help understand Dark Energy. Our students will learn about astronomy by participating in once-in-a-generation wave of discovery. We’re looking forward to sharing this with the community of enthusiasts, friends, and supporters who make DiRAC possible. 

Join us at this special event to meet our team, and learn what is to come from the most powerful sky survey telescope ever built!

2022 Application

Deadline: May 31st, 2022

The DiRAC Summer Research Prize program supports undergraduate research projects at the
University of Washington. Funding for this program has been generously provided by donations
through the 2022 Husky Giving Day program. Students who are currently enrolled at UW and
working with DiRAC researchers can apply.

Projects are expected to be specific, with a clear goal, outcome, or deliverable by the end of the
summer. While we especially hope to encourage students towards publication of their ongoing
research, projects in an earlier phase of effort are welcomed. We encourage students to work
with their mentors in crafting the research proposal.

Students supported by the DiRAC Summer Research Prize program will be asked to present a
brief summary of their projects at a DiRAC lunch event in Fall 2022.

Students are awarded $3500, supporting an 8-week research period. The level of effort is
expected to be approximately 20 hours per week during the awarded research period. These
funds can be awarded in addition to other summer research funding support by the department
or mentor.

Note: per UW rules, students cannot receive research credit (e.g. ASTR 499) for the same
hours supported by the DiRAC Summer Research Prize.

Submit your application as a PDF via email to the Summer Research Prize Coordinator:
Prof. James Davenport (jrad@uw.edu)

Student Information

Student Name:  name here

Student ID Number:  0123456789

Email Address:  _@uw.edu

Mentor Information

We require a brief letter of collaboration acknowledgment from the DiRAC mentor for each student application. This can be sent via email directly to the Summer Research Prize coordinator. Mentors must be a postdoc, research scientist, or faculty member working with DiRAC. Co-mentoring from other members of the Astronomy Department is welcomed!

DiRAC Research Mentor: Dr. ABC

(optional) Other Mentors: Dr. DEF, GHIJ KLMNOP

Project Information

Project Title:  An amazing thing!

Project Description (e.g. abstract, max 300 words):

Here is our project description. It’s a great idea and we can’t wait to work on it more.

Current State of the Project (how long has student been working on this, how close is it to publication, etc):

This student has been working on the amazing project for 3 quarters, taking Astr 499 credits with Dr ABC. We expect to have a publication ready by the end of the year. Data analysis is largely finished, and we currently have a ton of plots.

Specific Goals for Summer 2022:

We will write a paper this summer. We will have a paper outline done by June 20. Final code will be run by July 10. We plan to submit this paper for publication by Fall, and present this work at the upcoming AAS conference.