The Vera Rubin Observatory's First Look Event happened in July 2025, when the observatory revealed its first look at the cosmos. That was when we were gifted the stunning Cosmic Treasure Chest image, among others.
But the VRO's commissioning camera was active before that. It was mounted on the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the VRO in 2022 and observed for seven weeks in late 2024, then was removed in December 2024. It's a fully functional, yet smaller, version of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time camera, which is, as all spaceheads should know, the largest digital camera ever built.
The Commissioning Camera was built for comprehensive, end-to-end testing of the VRO's systems. It's an engineering test camera, fondly referred to as ComCam.
To mark the two year anniversary of the beginning of testing with ComCam, the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory has released a new image from the ComCam. Maybe they sensed the palpable, built-up anticipation for more VRO images and this is meant to satisfy our appetite.
During its seven-week testing run, ComCam gathered about 16,000 exposures. This image shows a nebula about 3,700 light years away called the Seagull Nebula, more formally named IC 2177. Three gas clouds make up the Seagull Nebula, and this image highlights Sharpless 2-292, which represents the bird's head.
This image of the Seagull Nebula from amateur astrophotographer Arnaud Geoffroy shows the complete Seagull Nebula. It places ComCam's image in context, and illustrates how it represents the Seagull's head. Image Credit: By Kropernic - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=196401215
ComCam is much smaller than the VRO's LSST camera, but still produces 144 megapixel images, and each one covers an area of the sky equal to two full Moons.
Even though the ComCam is nowhere near as capable as the LSST camera, it still produces amazing images that would turn an astrophotographer green with envy. After all, ComCam was still used with the same image-processing that the LSST camera will use.
This zoomed-in portion of the image shows some of the incredible detail in the Seagull Nebula. It's an area of intense, active star-formation, where hot young stars emit ionizing radiation. The radiation removes any obscuring dust and lights up hydrogen gas in the molecular clouds that the stars form in. The hydrogen gas is pink, and the blue comes from dust reflecting light from other young stars. Not bad for a test camera. Image Credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA. Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)
ComCam's main job is now done, but it still has some responsibilities. It'll still be used to test LSST software, and to aid with other maintenance operations.
Once we start seeing more images from the LSST camera, we'll probably forget about ComCam. But that fact that an engineering camera like it can produce such stunning images is a definite marker of how far astronomy and astronomical images have come.