Observing Specialist- Senior-stage Career - La Serena, Chile - Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy

Descripción

Observing Specialist- Senior-stage Career

Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is now in the exciting phase ofintegration and commissioning and will become operational in 2024.

Theproject is thus seeking an
Observing Specialist to be part of theteam that will bring the observatory to its routine operation andcarry out the planned 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).The Observing Specialist team is expected to grow as we near fulloperations in early 2024 to reach 13 members.

The ObservingSpecialists will work with a variety of systems needed to commissionand operate the Observatory, including the 8.4m Simonyi primary surveytelescope, the 1.2m Auxiliary Telescope that supports atmosphericcalibration and initial system commissioning, the ComCam — thecommissioning camera, the LSSTCam — the main survey science camera,and a variety of control systems and software.

Observing Specialistswill develop intimate knowledge of the data and technology used in theLSST and will work closely with team members across the project.

Observing Specialists will also be trained and well-prepared tocontribute to further development and refinement of the Observatoryand the data produced.

The Simonyi 8.4 m telescope is aninnovative design used to conduct an imaging survey over much of thesouthern sky repeatedly over a 10-year period.

The data from the LSSTwill be unprecedented in scale and sensitivity to faint objects. Thesurvey will enable a wide range of science, from exploration of thetime domain to dark matter and dark energy. Data from RubinObservatory will fundamentally change how humanity perceives andunderstands the Universe in which we live.

While we completeconstruction of the Simonyi Telescope and LSSTCam instrument, theObserving Specialists will work with ComCam and the AuxiliaryTelescope that each feature hardware and control systems identical tothat of the Simonyi telescope and camera.

Refining processes andinterfaces on this system will enable more efficient commissioning onthe rest of the system later. Observing Specialists currentlyreport to the Rubin System Commissioning Manager and will eventuallyreport to the Observing Specialist Manager after this staff member ishired (search has started in January This position is based inChile, with operations in La Serena and at CerroPachon.


Essential Functions:


Support Nighttimecommissioning by:

• Developing and documenting proceduresassociated with the operations of the main Rubin Observatory SimonyiSurvey Telescope and its Auxiliary Telescope (AuxTel) and associatedsubsystems.
• Safely operating the Auxiliary and/or the Simonyitelescopes at night.
• Becoming familiar with the Simonyi andAuxiliary Telescopes operation and monitoring software and theirrespective GUIs.
• Monitoring summit weather conditions andexecuting predetermined actions when conditions are adverse foroperations.
• Monitoring Simonyi and Auxiliary Telescopes'subsystems' health through subsystems GUIs.
• Softwaretroubleshooting and debugging, becoming adept with extracting, andanalyzing information from the Observatory's Engineering FacilityDatabase to understand the sources of issues.
• Performing basicevaluations of delivered image and spectra quality.
• Obtaining andanalyzing calibration data taking with both telescopes (e.g. flatfielding).
• Producing nightly observing reports that includeactivity log entries and automated technical assessments derived fromthe Engineering and Facility Database and faultreporting

Supporting Daytime commissioning by:

• Participating in daytime software test activities.
• Acquiringknowledge of all the subsystems to understand and support theirfunctions and operation.
• Participating in the development,review, and refinement of the Simonyi and Auxiliary Telescopesoperation procedures.
• Providing feedback to optimize thetelescope's operations and monitoring software.
  RequiredEducation/Experience/Skills/Abilities
• Bachelor's degree inPhysics, Astronomy, Computer Science, Engineering, or a closelyrelated field.
• A seniorstage career position requires 7 or moreyears of postgraduate experience in at least one of the followingareas:
• Operation of a major groundbased telescope or spaceobservatory.
• Optical and/or infrared observing techniques.
• Data reduction and analysis of optical and/or infrared ground baseddata.
• Experience with Astronomical/Physics instruments.
• Fluency in English, with a preference for Spanish language competencyas well.
• Experience with writing bug or fault reports and issuetracking using tools such as Jira or equivalent.
• Knowledge of ahighlevel software scripting knowledge such as Pythonorequivalent.
• Must have the ability to work either at day or nighton the Cerro Pachón summit, at 2,713 meters above sea level (approx.9,000 feet).
• Willingness to stay at the summit for severaldays/nights on end (food and lodging provided)
• Willingness toaccept responsibility for th #J18808Ljbffr