Vera Rubin’s Monster 3200-Megapixel Camera Takes its First Picture (in the Lab) - Universe Today

Rubin Observatory has taken another step towards first light, projected for some time in 2022.

The camera is the largest ever built, and its unprecedented power is the driving force behind the Observatory’s ten year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).

“The focal plane will produce the images for the LSST, so it’s the capable and sensitive eye of the Rubin Observatory.”.

SLAC’s Steven Kahn, director of the observatory, said in a press release, “This achievement is among the most significant of the entire Rubin Observatory Project.

The completion of the LSST Camera focal plane and its successful tests is a huge victory by the camera team that will enable Rubin Observatory to deliver next-generation astronomical science.”.

All of this image gathering and processing will create the Rubin Observatory’s output: panoramic wide field images of the southern sky, one every few nights for 10 years.

That will be the Rubin Observatory’s primary contribution to astronomy: the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).

“These specifications are just astounding,” said Steven Ritz, project scientist for the LSST Camera at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

It’s taken the camera team several months to install the rafts onto the focal plane.

Since the entire camera isn’t assembled yet, the team projected images onto the focal plane with a 150 micron pinhole.

Rubin herself, a photo collage of LSST team members, and a photo collage of logos of LSST member institutions.

“Taking these images is a major accomplishment,” said SLAC’s Aaron Roodman, the scientist responsible for the assembly and testing of the LSST Camera.

“With the tight specifications we really pushed the limits of what’s possible to take advantage of every square millimeter of the focal plane and maximize the science we can do with it.”.

The focal plane and the cryostat will be inserted into the camera body, along with its three lenses.

Rubin Observatory so special is the fact that it images the same areas of the sky over and over in rapid succession.

And the fact that anybody with an internet connection will be able to share in the discoveries and images means that the Rubin Observatory could inspire generations of future astronomers, the same way the Hubble Space Telescope has