Deep lens Survey Images
These images, from a pilot project called the Deep Lens Survey (DLS), give a taste of what the sky will look like with LSST. The DLS images are deep - they show roughly ten times as many galaxies per unit area than the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - but the LSST data will actually go somewhat deeper than the DLS. LSST will also have better resolution thanks to having been designed from the ground up to minimize blurring, unlike many of today's telescopes. But most impressively, the LSST images will cover 50,000 times the area of each of these images, and in 5 different optical bands. LSST will also reveal changes in the sky by repeatedly covering this area - multiple times per month.
Click here to view a PowerPoint presentation showing the improvement in resolution and depth from images taken from the DSS: digitized photographic plates, to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and finally to the Deep Lens Survey. The LSST will be an even greater improvement being twice as deep and having twice the resolution of the DLS.
Click on Images for a High Resolution Version
Images Courtesy of Deep Lens Survey / UC Davis / NOAO
Each of these DLS images covers just the area of the moon - half a degree.