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System Design

The basic characteristics of the LSST facility derives directly from its science programs. The telescope itself must have a wide field of view in order to obtain several hundred images of each area of the sky over an entire hemisphere in only 10 years. The aperture must be large in order to achieve the sensitivity required to reach faint limiting magnitudes. The wavelength coverage must be broad in order to derive photometric redshifts and to characterize the ages and metallicities of stellar populations.

About Rubin Observatory

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Overview

The goal of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory project is to conduct the 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). LSST will deliver a 500 petabyte set of images and data products that will address some of the most pressing questions about the structure and evolution of the universe and the objects in it. The Rubin Observatory LSST is designed to address four science areas:

Education and Public Outreach

Data Management

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Data Management is responsible for creating the software, services and systems which will be used to produce Rubin Observatory's data products. If you are interested in installing the pipeline software jump to pipelines.lsst.io.

Camera

The Rubin Observatory LSST Camera is the largest digital camera ever constructed. At about 5.5 ft (1.65 m) by 9.8 ft (3 m), it's roughly the size of a small car and weighs almost 6200 lbs (2800 kg). It is a large-aperture, wide-field optical imager capable of viewing light from the near ultraviolet to near infrared (0.3-1 μm) wavelengths. The LSST Camera is designed to provide a 3.5-degree field of view, with its 10 μm pixels capable of 0.2 arcsecond sampling for optimized pixel sensitivity vs pixel resolution.

Rubin Observatory Telescope & Site

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Telescope and Site is a subsystem of the Rubin Observatory which includes the telescope itself, as well as the buildings and facilities needed to support the operations and maintenance of Rubin Observatory.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Image Credit: 
P. Marenfeld/LSST Project Office

The LSST Project has emerged from a busy and exciting summer preparing the technical and administrative aspects of the Project for the final stages of design and construction readiness. In July, the LSST project management transitioned to Victor Krabbendam, who kicks off his contribution to LSST E-News below… I have been on the job for three months now, and I am very excited to be working with a great team on a spectacular project. It is a tremendous privilege to be named the LSST Project Manager. It is already well established that the Project is positioned to address many of today’s compelling questions in astronomy and physics. It will also provide a new paradigm for data intensive science and engineering and will offer countless opportunities to address STEM education. The privilege for me is the opportunity to work with the team of engineers, scientists, and other professionals to derive, build, and commission this observatory. The team has been led by Don Sweeney since 2003, and it is my pleasure to take over and lead this team in making the LSST a reality.

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Financial support for Rubin Observatory comes from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Cooperative Agreement No. 1258333, the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science under Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515, and private funding raised by the LSST Corporation. The NSF-funded Rubin Observatory Project Office for construction was established as an operating center under management of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA).  The DOE-funded effort to build the Rubin Observatory LSST Camera (LSSTCam) is managed by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC).
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science. NSF supports basic research and people to create knowledge that transforms the future.
NSF and DOE will continue to support Rubin Observatory in its Operations phase. They will also provide support for scientific research with LSST data.   




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