SLAC’s LSST camera will explore cosmic mysteries as part of the Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time. 

The largest digital camera ever built for ground-based astronomy, the 3.2-gigapixel Legacy Survey of Space and Time Camera is the size of a small car and weighs more than 3 tons.

Hannah Pollek and Travis Lange at the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) raft installation.

Mechanical engineer Travis Lange carefully watches the installation of the 14th  raft tower modules.

Jeff Tice, background, holds the particle counter while Travis Lange inspects the surface of the r-band optical filter for dust particles. 

Arrival and inspection of the L3 lens of the LSST Camera

From left, Travis Lange, Hannah Pollek and LLNL’s Justin Wolfe inspect LSST Camera optic filters.

This photo shows the 3,200-megapixel focal plane of Rubin Observatory’s LSST Camera, under construction at SLAC.

The data acquisition system for the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory LSST Camera starts right at the back of the focal plane, a composite of 189 digital sensors used to take night-sky images, plus several more used to line up...