First Look from Rubin Telescope Beams into Santa Barbara

The glow of the Milky Way reflects off of Rubin Observatory's silver dome in this photo from May 2025. Credit: Quint 

On Wednesday, June 25, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History hosted a special “First Look” event in partnership with Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO), debuting the first images from the groundbreaking Vera C. Rubin Observatory. As the Museum prepares to launch its Space Sciences exhibit on July 12, this event offers an early glimpse into the global discoveries and local science shaping our understanding of the universe. 

Located in Chile, the Rubin Observatory is the most powerful survey telescope ever built. Over the next decade, it will scan the southern sky every few nights as part of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST)—capturing dynamic events like supernovae, near-Earth asteroids, and black hole mergers, and helping to unravel mysteries like dark matter.  
 
“The Rubin Observatory will observe countless objects in our local universe that have never been seen before. LCO scientists have been preparing for this for over a decade and we can’t wait to see what exciting things Rubin reveals,” says LCO Observatory Director Lisa Storrie-Lombardi, Ph.D. 

Santa Barbara-based Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) plays a vital role in the Rubin Observatory’s mission. With the only global network of robotic telescopes, LCO is uniquely positioned to track and study new cosmic events discovered by Rubin in real time. LCO scientists have been instrumental in shaping the project through their leadership in the LSST Discovery Alliance, a collaborative network supporting the Rubin survey’s scientific goals. 

The Museum’s “First Look” event featured a live broadcast of Rubin’s debut images, interactive displays, and a preview of themes that will be explored in its upcoming Space Sciences exhibit. Opening July 12, the exhibit will build public familiarity with the dynamics of the solar system and an appreciation for how astronomers constantly build on past discoveries to refine our understanding of the cosmos. 

Rubin During First Look Observing Campaign. Credit: Matsopoulos 

The Museum’s Astronomy Programs Manager, Ila Jad Komasa said. "Our Gladwin Planetarium allows us to make space more accessible and bring it a little closer to home. We have an amazing opportunity to take these remarkable images from Rubin Observatory and explore them in our planetarium. I am thrilled to collaborate with LCO to celebrate this milestone of astronomy." 

About the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History 

Powered by Science. Inspired by Nature. The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History connects people to nature for the betterment of both, drawing on collections that preserve the natural and cultural heritage of the Central Coast and beyond. Founded in 1916, the Museum is a private nonprofit supported in part by philanthropy, membership, and visitors. Members visit free. For more information, visit sbnature.org. 

This image combines 678 separate images taken by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in just over seven hours of observing time. Combining many images in this way clearly reveals otherwise faint or invisible details, such as the clouds of gas and dust that comprise the Trifid nebula (top) and the Lagoon nebula, which are several thousand light-years away from Earth. More information about this image is available on RubinObservatory.org. Credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory