The fifth European LSST conference titled Towards LSST science, together! was held in Poreč, Croatia, between 25-29 September 2023. Konkoly staff members Róbert Szabó, Tamás Szklenár, Enikő Regős, and András Kovács participated at the event. In adition, researchers from the Institute of Phsycs of ELTE and the ELTE Gothard Astrophysical Observatory in Szombathely represented Hungary.
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The Hungarian delegation at the LSST@EU5 conference in Poreč.
The 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will be one of the most important ground-based astronomical sky surveys. The project will have a profound imnpact on studying cosmology, Solar System bodies, transient astrophysical objects, and variable stars, as well as the structure of the Milky Way Galaxy, and stellar populations of nearby extragalaxies. Besides American and Chilean astronomers who possess data access rights through their institutes, other researchers – including Europeans – will have access to the data coming from the 8-meter telescope being built in Chile and to the related computatonal infrastructure. In exchange they need to offer and deliver so called in-kind contributions.
In addition to the European reseracher ciommunity, the US-based leaders of the project also participated. At the meeting we were updated on the status of the telescope and the project, about the preparatory work in the LSST science collaborations, as well as about the planned and on-going in-kind contributions. Hungary aims at an ambitious in-kind contribution including all three above-mentioned astronomical institutions. As a result, 25 Hungarian-based researchers will have access to the LSST data. The Hungarian in-kind contribution is coordinated by director Róbert Szabó.
The official group photo of the LSST@EU5 conference.
Previous editions of the conference series were held in Cambridge, Belgrade, Lyon, and in Rome (in 2022). The Slovenian, Croatian and Serbian co-organizers set the bar very high this year. The event went flawless, and the registered participants were introduced to the cultural and gastronomical curiosities of the Istiran penninsula in between and after the scientific and technical sessions. The next LSST conference will be in Spain, on the island of La Palma (the Canary Islands). It will be followed by Poland in 2025 and Hungary in 2026. Three years from now, at the Hungarian LSST@EU8 conference – having the first real LSST data in hand – our hope is that the focus will have shifted from the preparatory work and plans to the first LSST scientific results.