On April 27 an exciting milestone for the Vera Rubin Observatory was reached. The 8.4 m primary mirror received its reflective coating. You can watch the process in a short video, and read about it here. This brings the observatory a critical step closer to carrying out its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).

UC Davis is providing significant leadership in this project. Emeritus Professor of Physics and Astronomy Tony Tyson started the project in the 1990s and currently serves as the LSST Chief Scientist. His group is involved in the construction and validation of the 3200 megapixel LSST-CAM. Senior Researcher Craig Lage is down at the site in Chile now and reports that the construction phase of the project is nearly complete. Grad student Dan Polin and Postdoc Adam Snyder are working in the group's lab here on characterizing the LSST-CAM Charge Coupled Devices. These findings will mitigate systematic errors in the LSST data. 

Published: May 15, 2024, 9:15 am