What is the LSST?
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope is a revolutionary facility which will produce an unprecedented wide-field astronomical survey of our universe using an 8.4-meter ground-based telescope. The LSST leverages innovative technology in all subsystems: the camera (3200 Megapixels, the world’s largest digital camera), telescope (simultaneous casting of the primary and tertiary mirrors; two aspherical optical surfaces on one substrate), and data management (30 Terabytes of data nightly, nearly instant alerts issued for objects that change in position or brightness). This innovation on all fronts has attracted some prominent donors who are innovators in technology, institutional members, and hundreds of other scientists.
The LSST, or the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, is a facility that will produce a 6-band (0.3-1.1 micron) wide-field deep astronomical survey of over 20,000 square degrees of the southern sky using an 8.4-meter ground-based telescope. Each patch of sky will be visited about 1000 times in ten years. The LSST leverages innovative technology in all subsystems: the camera (3200 Megapixels, which will be the world’s largest digital camera), telescope (simultaneous casting of the primary and tertiary mirrors; two aspheric optical surfaces on one substrate), a 9.6 square degree field of view with excellent image quality, and data management (30 terabytes of data nightly, nearly instant alerts issued for objects that change in position or brightness). This innovation on all fronts has attracted many institutional members and hundreds of other scientists in ten science collaborations. Click here for a description of the LSST system and science reach, written for the scientific community.
