Bob Abel, Olympic College (Emeritus), DiRAC Institute, Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, “First Light: Early Results from the Rubin Observatory.” Join us as we hear updates of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory which officially began operations in June. Located on an Andean peak, with a huge mirror and the largest digital camera ever built, its deep, panoramic images record the entire night sky every three days, and it will repeat this process for ten years. This is by far the most ambitious sky survey ever: by the time of this talk, it will have already gathered more data than all of the telescopes in history combined. The first official data release is scheduled for mid-2028, but the observations obtained while calibrating the telescope are already providing new insights into our solar system, our galaxy, and the universe beyond.