An Interim Report on the ComCam On-Sky Campaign

Abstract

From 24 October to 11 December 2024, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory conducted on an on-sky campaign using the engineering Commissioning Camera (ComCam) to test the end-to-end functionality of hardware and software, as well as operational procedures. This interim report provides a preliminary technical overview of our understanding of the integrated system performance based tests and analyses conducted during the ComCam on-sky campaign. The objectives are to synthesize what we have learned about the system in a timely way to inform on-going commissioning efforts, and to inform the Rubin science community on the progress of the ComCam on-sky campaign. The report is organized into sections to describe major activities during the campaign, as well as multiple aspects of the demonstrated system and science performance. All of the results presented here are to be understood as work in progress using engineering data and the initial versions of the data processing pipelines; the report is a living document that will be updated as analyses are refined.