| Abstract: |
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, currently under construction on Cerro Pachón in Chile, will feature an 8.4-meter telescope, the largest digital camera in the world for astronomy (3200 megapixels), an automated data processing system, and an online public engagement platform. Rubin will conduct the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), and it will operate on an automated cadence, capturing an area the size of 40 full moons and returning to the same area of sky approximately every three nights after imaging the full sky. The Rubin Observatory was the top-ranked large ground-based project in the US 2010 Astrophysics Decadal Survey, and it will advance science in four main areas: the nature of dark matter and understanding dark energy, cataloging the Solar System, exploring the changing sky, and Milky Way structure and formation. Engineering and then science first light is expected in 2023 and full operations for the ten-year survey commencing in the second half of 2024. In this talk, I will introduce the Rubin Observatory, the LSST, and focus on the LSSTCam, its detectors, and the current observations at Cerro Pachón with the Auxiliary Telescope and preparation for LSSTCam commissioning. |
