Free Astronomy Magazine September-October 2026

19 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2026 ASTRO PUBLISHING Over the next ten years, Rubin will relentlessly observe the entire south- ern sky every few nights to create an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of our Universe. This long-awaited milestone is the culmination of years of effort by thousands of people around the world. It follows the celebratory Rubin First Look event that took place in June 2025, which was fol- lowed by final commissioning work, an operational readiness review, and the beginning of the alert stream. “Today, we begin filming the great- F rom a mountaintop in Chile, under clear dark skies, NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory has begun the revolutionary Legacy Sur- vey of Space and Time (LSST). The ten-year survey is Rubin’s signature campaign to create the most com- prehensive, cinematic record of the Universe in history. Rubin Observa- tory is a U.S. government facility jointly operated by NSF NOIRLab and DOE’s SLAC National Accelera- tor Laboratory. NOIRLab is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). T his 1.7-gigapixel image of a field of stars in the constellation Lupus showcases the un- precedented view of the Universe that NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observa- tory gives us. Equipped with the LSST Camera — the largest digital cam- era in the world — Rubin combines a wide view of the sky with the ability to detect extremely faint objects. With this capa- bility, Rubin can reveal details of the cosmos across an enormous range of scales, from dis- tant galaxies, to individ- ual stars, to the wispy clouds of dust spread throughout our galaxy. The faint, glowing clouds spread across this image are galactic cirrus: clouds of interstellar gas and dust that can be seen in the foreground of the Milky Way. Rubin’s ability to capture scenes like this in un- matched detail will open new windows into the structure of our galaxy and the Universe beyond it. [NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/ NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA] est cosmic movie ever made,” says Brian Stone, performing the duties of the NSF Director. “This moment reflects decades of vision, innova- tion, and the power of federal in- vestment in science through the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. Every night, NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory will expand the frontiers of knowl- edge and strengthen America’s global leadership in science and in- novation.” “With the launch of the ten-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time,