So how will this whole "First 7 TeV Collisions" event happen? Well, here is my (somewhat naive) understanding of what will happen.

This Tuesday, if all goes according to plan, will mark the end of a very long journey for many High Energy Physicists. The first 7 TeV Collisions will signal the end of the the commissioning period of the LHC and its experiments.

Last night a new very important milestone has been reached by the LHC: two counter-circulating proton beams have been accelerated for the first time to 3.5 TeV, the energy that they should routinely reach in the 2010-2011 running period.

It has been a BUSY weekend!  The LHC has been working around the clock get the machine commissioned, and ATLAS has been enjoying the many Firsts that have resulted.

High Energy Physicists have been waiting for many years to see the LHC turn on.  Now that it has been turned on, the network of physicists around the world have quickly been harnessed.  It can be considered a phase transition in particle physics.

At 21:32 pm on December 8th, the LHC did something that no other accelerator has ever done before.

On Sunday December 6, 2009 at 8.00 the ATLAS Pixel Detector has measured, for the first time, tracks emerging from LHC collisions. It has been a very smooth start.

The most recent schedule envisions beam reaching ATLAS in late November with low-energy collisions shortly thereafter.