The image size of this camera is unbelievably huge in its coverage.
Most telescopes take pictures of objects - this one takes pictures of the entire sky. And will do so in a time-lapse fashion for 10 years.
It's simultaneously more in line with a human's experience than an obscure wavelength of tiny object not visible to the naked eye - it takes a high-resolution picture that's similar to what you'd see if you look at the sky. But it's also profoundly grand beyond a human's experience because of just how much stuff is collected.
I’m the person in the chain that takes the scientific data and maps it into these color images used in the viewer (among other responsibilities). I spent a long time researching and developing the software that as close as possible maps the data into human perception. It means so much to see people out there appreciating our work, and following what Rubin will achieve. So that you for taking your time to check it out!
Jaw-dropping stuff, looking forward to pointing 9-year old daughter (in "Future Astrophysicist" t-shirt) at it!
Possibly a naive question, after surfing the image for a while I didn't find any einstein rings (or arcs) - are they just rare/wrong scale or something else?
They are both fairly rare, and or like you said wrong scale (for this data release at least). There is actually one in this field, but it is below the noise floor of this image, it is very small and very faint. There will be others in the future that will be easier to see. By the end of our survey we will have about 40,000 sq deg (a bit over half the night sky) looking like what you see here.
Be sure you and your daughter click the search icon, there are a few other fields of stuff you can check out. The links in the search will take you there without needing to scroll around the big black sphere.
Hey! Former astronomer here; I used to work a lot with SDSS data products. Do you happen to have a link to any sort of photometry DB/catalog for Rubin? Basically I’m looking to grab a ton of data but I’ve been out of the field for a while and I’m not sure where they publish their data sets and which ones you’d recommend as being relatively accessible.
You want to check out the early science release info at https://rubinobservatory.org/for-scientists/resources/early-... . This is all early science from preliminary data. It is mostly to help people ramp up developing their software against the type of things they will be seeing in the future. There some known issues and gotchas outlined in the release. Hopefully this will be enough to whet your appetite. The data seen in this sky viewer is part of the Data Preview 2.
I hope the data releases are a bit better than what I've seen from recent telescopes.
The common pattern seems to be that the majority of data is locked away behind multi-year embargo periods, or never released to the public at all with no explanation why, with only the smallest little crumbs of raw data actually released to the public, and usually years out of date. Also you have to go through some kafkaesque chain of technologies/servers/bureaucracy to get access to that little bit of data.
It's a little depressing to me when the public funds these telescopes and then get snubbed when it comes to getting access to the data they produce.
We are getting pretty far outside my area of expertise / knowledge on this topic here, but I know I and others agree with you here. There is a Rubin Observatory data access policy out there. Don't quote me on the exact specifics but I believe that most colleges and research institutions already have a mechanism to enable data access setup, or can get one. This is mostly an id auth type thing to make sure those accessing have data rights. There is a policy where people not associated with those can request access too, but I am not sure the procedure and would not be qualified to weigh in on anything more specific.
Most telescopes take pictures of objects - this one takes pictures of the entire sky. And will do so in a time-lapse fashion for 10 years.
It's simultaneously more in line with a human's experience than an obscure wavelength of tiny object not visible to the naked eye - it takes a high-resolution picture that's similar to what you'd see if you look at the sky. But it's also profoundly grand beyond a human's experience because of just how much stuff is collected.
https://skyviewer.app/explorer
Possibly a naive question, after surfing the image for a while I didn't find any einstein rings (or arcs) - are they just rare/wrong scale or something else?
and thank you!
Be sure you and your daughter click the search icon, there are a few other fields of stuff you can check out. The links in the search will take you there without needing to scroll around the big black sphere.
I hope your daughter enjoys it, and we have a few activities at https://rubinobservatory.org/education/first-look-lasting-im... including a coloring book.
The common pattern seems to be that the majority of data is locked away behind multi-year embargo periods, or never released to the public at all with no explanation why, with only the smallest little crumbs of raw data actually released to the public, and usually years out of date. Also you have to go through some kafkaesque chain of technologies/servers/bureaucracy to get access to that little bit of data.
It's a little depressing to me when the public funds these telescopes and then get snubbed when it comes to getting access to the data they produce.
At the same time somehow every chunk is genuinely different. So much space my mind wants there to be a trick of some kind that reduces it