Just over a week until the Vera Rubin Observatory’s First Look Event, June 23 (online presentation at 11:00 am Eastern Time). Observatory testing and calibration has peaked, and is now wrapping up loose ends, since… the remaining tasks are becoming more and more perfunctory and minor:
https://community.lsst.org/t/2025-06-13-on-sky-commissioning-update/10191
Seems like all should be ready for that First Look ceremony. If the online “experience” is not experiential enough for you, check again for an in-person VRO celebration in your area:
https://rubinobservatory.org/news/rubin-first-look/rubin-party
https://noirlab.edu/public/announcements/ann25012/
https://www.uu.nl/en/news/utrecht-university-hosts-rubin-first-look-watch-party
https://ccnyplanetarium.org/posts/2025/06/02/vera-rubin-first-look.html
The list of Vera Rubin parties is now over two hundred, more like 250. It includes universities, planetaria, and miscellaneous orgs (I think I saw people’s houses) both US and internationally.
The patrolling and curating of the universe’s transient/moving phenomena (on timescales of 2-4 days) is about to begin, and begin decisively. Vera Rubin will set a new bar for sky surveys.