5th LSST Regional Workshop

31 Aug 2026, 09:00 → 4 Sept 2026, 16:00 Europe/Rome

IFPU

Leo Girardi (INAF - Osservatorio Astroniomico di Padova), Giada Pastorelli (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)), Simone Zaggia (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will carry out a decade-long survey of the southern sky. Following its first light in July 2025, the survey will begin issuing millions of transient and variable alerts each night within 60 seconds of observation starting in 2026. In summer 2026, the release of Data Preview 2 (DP2) will provide the first substantial set of representative data products, and in 2027 the first multi-petabyte data release (DR1) will follow, with subsequent releases issued annually.

Since 2021, several national teams in Eastern Europe (Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia) have organized annual LSST Regional Workshops to strengthen collaborations, exchange expertise, and prepare for LSST data exploitation.

The Padova–Trieste group, which has participated since 2022 and built strong scientific links within this regional community, will host the 5th LSST Regional Workshop 2026 at the Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe (IFPU), located at Miramare in Trieste, Italy.

The scientific discussions will span all areas that depend on deep and wide time-series photometry, going from solar system small bodies to cosmological constraints derived from supernova and weak lensing.   

The workshop will follow the same flexible, interactive format as previous editions to prioritize open discussion. We begin Monday (Aug 31) early afternoon and conclude on Wednesday afternoon. Optional hands-on sessions and working groups will follow on Thursday and Friday morning for those interested in collaborative work. 

The final agenda will be shaped by your input and contributions; for now, we kindly ask you to register and review the logistics information to help us plan the workshop.

The workshop is supported by:

Monday 31 August

Registration and welcome lunch

Session 1: Block 1

1 Welcome & Logistics

Speakers: Giada Pastorelli (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)), Leo Alberto Girardi (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)), Dr Simone Zaggia (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))

2 LSST and Data Preview 2 Status Update

Speaker: Zeljko Ivezic (University of Washington)

3 Crowded stellar fields in Rubin-LSST

Speaker: Massimo Dall'Ora (INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte)

4 Updates on TRILEGAL and SPICE4LSST

Speaker: Giada Pastorelli (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))

5 Updates on PARSEC & COLIBRI stellar models

Speakers: Guglielmo Costa (University of Padova), Michele Trabucchi (University of Padova)

15:30 coffee break

Session 1: Block 2

6 PhotoD with the LSST

Speaker: Lovro Palaversa (Ruđer Bošković Institute)

7 PhotoD with LSST: Stellar Photometric Distances Out to the Edge of the Galaxy

Speaker: Lovorka Gajović (Ruđer Bošković Institute)

Tuesday 1 September

Session 2: Block 1

8 LSST a new challenge in the variable star world

Speaker: Tamás Szklenár (HUN-REN CSFK, Konkoly Observatory)

9 Bridging the Gap to Rubin-LSST: Multi-band ugriz Characterization of High-Fidelity Variable Stars in the Galactic Bulge

Speaker: Mahtab Gholami (INAF-OACN)

10 Supercomputer ‘Bura’ as a dedicated SPC for Rubin-related science: Supporting Data-Intensive Astronomy and Scientific Collaborations

Speaker: Tomislav Jurkic (University of Rijeka, Faculty of Physics)

10:30 Coffee break

Session 2: Block 2

11 Mapping the cosmic web with Rubin-LSST

Speaker: András Kovács (Konkoly Observatory)

12 Systematic from photometric errors in cross-correlation based studies of LSST and CMB lensing data

Speaker: Kishan Deka (NCBJ, Warsaw)

13 Low surface galaxies as probes for galaxy science and cosmology

Speaker: Agnieszka Pollo (National Centre for Nuclear Research, Warsaw)

14 Detailed morphological analysis of large, well resolved galaxies

Speaker: Zsolt Frei (Eötvös Universty & Konkoly Observatory)

12:30 Lunch break

Session 2: Block 3

15 Searching for the first strongly lensed supernovae with LSST

Speaker: Nikki Arendse (University of Nova Gorica)

16 The QhX Hub: A Catalogue of Coherent and Quasi-Coherent Variability in LSST AGN

Speaker: Andjelka Kovacevic (University of Belgrade)

17 Multi-Head ALNP: An Attentive Latent Neural Process for AGN light curve reconstruction and parameters inference

Speaker: Natale De Bonis (University of Belgrade)

18 Follow-up strategy for the quasar with strong coherent variability discovered in LSST DP1

Speaker: Dragana Ilic (Department of Astronomy, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Belgrade)

15:30 Coffee break

Session 2: Block 4

19 Machine Learning classification of Tidal Disruption Events from partial optical light curves

Speaker: Oleksandra Razim (University of Nova Gorica)

20 Class-contrastive and self-supervised learning for Tidal Disruption Events classification with limited labels

Speaker: Gabriella Contardo (University of Nova Gorica; SISSA)

21 Recent developments of the TiDE code

Speaker: Zsófia Kovács-Stermeczky (Konkoly Observatory)

22 Improving the Detection of Faint, Fast-Moving Asteroids with Machine Learning

Speaker: Karlo Mrakovčić (University of Rijeka, Faculty of Physics)

Wednesday 2 September

Session 3: Block 1

23 Deriving colour compensations for LSST’s photometry with AuxTel

Speaker: Martín Rodríguez Monroy (Konkoly Observatory)

24 Toward a Universal Language for Astronomical Transients

Speaker: Veljko Vujcic (Astronomical Observatory Belgrade)

25 Transients in the First Alerts of LSST

Speaker: Ernestine Umuzigazuba (University of Nova Gorica)

10:30 Coffee break

Hands-on sessions & co-working

26 Data visualization and outreach

12:30 Lunch break

Discussion

15:30 Coffee Break

Optional Activity: Paint your LSST Science

19:30 Social Dinner

Thursday 3 September

Hands-on sessions & co-working

27 Hands-on session on DP2 Data Access and Data Quality

DP2 data access and data quality: source classification (star/galaxy separation), comparing CMDs with TRILEGAL simulated data

11:00 Coffee break

Hands-on sessions & co-working

28 Hands-on session on Variability with DP2 data

13:00 Lunch break

Hands-on sessions & co-working

29 Stellar populations and variability co-working session

Public outreach event in Basovizza

30 Vera Rubin Observatory - La più grande mappa dell'Universo

Link to the event page ITA / ENG

Friday 4 September

Hands-on sessions & co-working

31 Hands-on session - Co-working

11:00 Coffee Break