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Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) 
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The LSST facility is an 8-meter class ground based optical telescope with a 3.5 degree diameter field-of-view and a 3 billion pixel camera. It is designed to survey the entire visible sky every few nights with short repeated exposures. During its 10 year mission the LSST survey will cover more than 20,000 square degrees through 6 filters spanning the visible spectrum (350 - 1025 nm) providing both a deep (r ~ 27) census of billions of objects and a movie-like view of the cosmos as it unfolds on multiple timescales. This wide, fast and deep 10-year survey will provide the next great advance in our understanding of some of the most compelling questions in astronomy and astrophysics The LSST data management system will process, archive and distribute the survey data as well as associated transient alerts and generated catalogs. These data and data products will be provided to the public without any proprietary period. |
NOAO and LSST
NOAO is a founding member of the LSST Corporation (LSSTC) and an active participant in the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Project. NOAO activities are focused on:
- promoting the development of the project
- development of the telescope, summit and base facility infrastructure
- community participation and representing community interests in the project
Advocating for a powerful new tool for the astronomical community
AURA and NOAO have advocated for a wide field survey telescope since the late 1990s and partnered with Research Corporation, and the Universities of Arizona and Washington to form the LSSTC in 2003. NOAO has continued to support the growing partnership with funding and governing support. The NOAO Director is a standing member of the LSSTC Board of Directors and currently corporate treasurer.
View recent AURA endorsement of LSST as a Community Project.
Designing the telescope, site, and summit facilities
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The LSST Telescope and Site sub-system includes all aspects of the telescope, site, summit facility and base facility except the equipment specific to the camera and the data management tasks. NOAO has assembled a team of engineers, programmers, and scientists with a rich history of astronomical facility development, maintenance and operation to address the development challenges of this sub-system. The group is developing the technical designs for the LSST and managing LSSTC projects to develop the mirrors for the LSST using non-federal funding. The LSST Project concluded a multi-year site selection process and accepted the independent panel recommendation to locate LSST on Cerro Pachon in Chile. Since this selection the NOAO site team has focused on detailed site characterization. |
The NOAO LSST project team has significant participation in LSST system engineering and observatory control system development. The group also forms the nucleus of the Operations Simulator Team, a group developing tools to simulate the observations taken in the entire LSST survey considering technical design, weather, and observation demands.
Providing a gateway to broad community participation
The LSST project is committed to being a community asset for professional astronomers and astrophysicists and the public alike. The data will be available without any proprietary period and alerts on transient phenomena detected by LSST will be broadcast on VO compliant alerts within 60 seconds of an observation.
The project has included an education and public outreach component to begin the effort required to effectively reach the public and is actively engaging the professional community as well through science collaborations.
NOAO is working with the LSST project to invite US scientists to join these collaborations and interact with the project as it finalizes the plans for the project design and data output. For more information on how community scientists can participate, see the LSST community participation page.
Contact Us
- NOAO LSST Program Manager: Victor Krabbendam (victor@noao.edu)
- NOAO LSST Project Scientist: Abi Saha (asaha@noao.edu)
- NOAO Director, NOAO LSST Board member: David Silva (dsilva@noao.edu)
Updated: 30 December 2008 (DS2)
