Pre-LSST Overview

Following the handover from the Construction Project in late October 2025, Rubin Observatory has been in a period of early operations optimization known colloquially as “Pre-LSST”. Observations during this period, October 2025 to present, have been a mixture of intensive engineering time and Feature Based Scheduler (FBS) driven “Pre-LSST” observations.

The engineering time has focused on tuning of the Simonyi Survey Telescope, including its Active Optics System, to improve image quality. The Pre-LSST FBS observations’ primary goal is to facilitate evaluation of summit performance in terms of image quality and survey speed.

The configuration of the FBS observations follow the SCOC Phase 3 recommendations, but at times add constraints to facilitate image quality investigations. The FBS configuration also adds a template acquisition survey mode to compliment lessons learned during commissioning. The general configuration is similar to v5.0, but with the addition of this single-visit template tier.

• Data Preview 2 (DP2)
• Pre-LSST 20260619

Last Updated

Last Updated 2026/06/28