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November
The 72,620 pound M1M3 shipping container was successfully transported from CAID Industries in Tucson to the UofA Mirror Lab. The 30ft x 30ft oversize load departed at 4am, escorted by four Tucson police cars and two pilot vehicles. Offloading was completed by 5:30am. Once Final Acceptance Testing is completed, the M1M3 will be stored locally in Tucson for final integrated testing prior to shipment to the summit facility in Chile.
Credit: 
LSST Project
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November
The 72,620 pound M1M3 shipping container was successfully transported from CAID Industries in Tucson to the UofA Mirror Lab. The 30ft x 30ft oversize load departed at 4am, escorted by four Tucson police cars and two pilot vehicles. Offloading was completed by 5:30am. Once Final Acceptance Testing is completed, the M1M3 will be stored locally in Tucson for final integrated testing prior to shipment to the summit facility in Chile.
Credit: 
LSST Project
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December
The unique LSST M1/M3 mirror surfaces are nearing perfection. Both mirror surfaces are being carefully polished and optically tested with completion anticipated by the end of December 2013.
Credit: 
E. Acosta / LSST Corporation
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Transient Phenomena

The LSST will open a new window on the variable sky. Recent surveys have shown the power of variability for studying gravitational lensing, searching for supernovae, determining the physical properties of gamma-ray burst sources, etc.

January
Clearly visible in this mid-June 2012 photograph are the dual optical surfaces in the LSST M1/M3 mirror blank. The steeper 5.0-meter diameter M3 surface, with its short radius of curvature, descends toward the center while the outer 8.4-meter diameter M1 surface sweeps outward to the edge of the substrate. Generation of both the M1 and M3 figure is now completed, with nearly 5 tons of glass removed to achieve the required approximate shape before polishing can begin. Laser tracker measurements confirm that the primary and tertiary surfaces are located properly with respect to each other. Next polishing actuators and thermocouples will be installed on the polishing cell for precision polishing of the front surface. The M1/M3 dual surfaces are scheduled to be complete in January 2012. Shown L-R: S. Jacoby, C. Claver, S. Wolff, V. Krabbendam, J. Schaefer.
Credit: 
E. Acosta / LSST Corporation
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The Unimagined

A challenge for the LSST is to recognize important transient events—in real time—in a scene full of normal variations. On the one hand, there will be too much data for hands- or eyes-on analysis by scientists, no matter how skilled. On the other hand, there are so many different types of transient activity that writing specific programs to search for each one is far too likely to miss some very interesting and valuable phenomena.

Project Status

Project STatus info here

Business with LSST

Welcome! The following opportunities for Doing Business with Rubin Observatory are currently available.  Please contact Rubin Observatory Contracts Officer David Kittelson for more information:

David Kittelson
Rubin Observatory Contracts Officer
AURA Central Administrative Services
dkittelson@aura-astronomy.org

Project Status

What should be here?

Saturday, February 14, 2015
Image Credit: 
LSST

California scientists have given details of a telescope they are assembling to study "dark energy".

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope is being purpose-built to discover more about the force that is accelerating the expansion of the Universe.
The LSST will study 20 billion galaxies in order to calculate the recession rate through cosmic time.
Its camera will be built at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory near Palo Alto... See more and watch the video below.

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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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