Skip to main content

Rubin General Information

Vera C. Rubin Observatory - Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST page) is the 10 year survey project designed for:

   • Probing dark energy and dark matter.
   • Taking an inventory of the solar system.
   • Exploring the transient optical sky.
   • Mapping the Milky Way.

and our cosmology group is actively working with DESC (Dark Energy Science Collaboration) who will use LSST data to measure the cosmological parameters with high accuracy.

Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) was re-named to Vera C. Rubin, but the name of LSST is kept as Legacy Survey of Space and Time as a project name. This is the first stone of the Rubin, with the old sign of LSST on it.

The first stone of LSST, in front of the building entrance.Mountain view from the Rubin summit

The telescope is under a construction in Cerro Pachón, 9k feet high desert mountain in Chile. The first observation is planned to be in 2024. The site has good advantage of having good weather, it only rains about one day per year. This is a strong benefit for the observation and the Rubin will be 3rd AURA (Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy) telescope built on the Cerro Pachón along with SOAR and Gemini.

Cerro Pachon's three telescopes
picture credit: C. Claver, NOAO/LSST, https://www.lsst.org/

The project is funded by NSF, DOE, and LSSTC. This picture is taken at the entrance of the building, with a reflection of the AuxTel. AuxTel is the telescope that is a smaller version of the Rubin to test and get ready for the actual telescope. 

The project is funded by NSF, DOE, and LSSTC.The Rubin building

One of our member, HyeYun Park, is visiting the summit for 6 months in 2022 and more in 2023. The Rubin will have 3 mirrors and 3 lenses. The size of the primary mirror of the Rubin will be 8.4m wide. The Rubin will have the world's largest digital camera, containing 21 rafts + 4 corner rafts. One science raft contains 3x3 CCD cameras, meaning whole camera will be combined of 200 CCDs, 4k pixel x 4k pixel (4cm x 4cm) size each. 

Inside the Rubin domeRubin whole building

Project and Community Workshop (PCW) is held at Arizona Tucson in 2022 after long two years of virtual meeting.

pcw2022_Tucson