Our Mission

Rubin Observatory’s mission is to build a well-understood system that will produce an unprecedented astronomical data set for studies of the deep and dynamic universe, make the data widely accessible to a diverse community of scientists, and engage the public to explore the Universe with us.

Welcome

LSST received its federal construction start in August of 2014. This website supports the LSST Project Office in its construction of the facility.

Rubin’s 8.4-meter Mirror Moves into the Observatory

Drone view of the Rubin summit team moving the combined 8.4-meter Primary/Tertiary Mirror from a storage building into the Observatory on March 7, 2024.

Rubin Observatory’s primary/tertiary mirror was successfully moved from a storage building into the observatory on March 7, 2024

Rubin’s 8.4-meter combined primary/tertiary mirror has been moved to the maintenance floor inside the observatory for the very first time. With this move, the mirror is officially “home” inside the main observatory building, where it will remain for the rest of construction and throughout Rubin’s ten-year survey. The mirror — which hasn’t been coated yet and is still a glass blank — arrived on Cerro Pachón in May 2019 and has been stored in a building outside the observatory since then. It’s been safely packed in a transport/storage box the whole time to protect it from damage, and on March 7th the summit team loaded that box onto a specialized truck to make the short (~ 600 m / 656 yd) but important journey from the storage building to the observatory.

This exciting move was actually the second major move on the summit during the past week. The transport team first had to move the 8.4-meter steel stand-in mirror out of the observatory to make room for the glass mirror. The successful transport of the steel surrogate mirror on March 6th provided a test-run — approximately in reverse — for the glass mirror move the next day.

Both moves were carried out with Javier Cortés, the same company that transported the mirror to the summit from the shipping dock in Coquimbo after it arrived in Chile in mid-2019. Rubin’s Summit Safety team also played a major role in both days’ events, ensuring that all safety regulations were followed and that all staff involved had completed the appropriate training and preparation.

Although the mirror moves were completed in just two days, many months of planning and weeks of site preparation were necessary to ensure a smooth ride between the two buildings — especially for the delicate glass mirror. Some extra strategizing was also necessary to fit the mirror box onto the crowded observatory maintenance floor — the mirror’s steel support structure had to be moved temporarily into the vertical platform lift (aka the equipment elevator) to make room. Rubin staff members onsite likened it to playing Tetris with some really big and oddly shaped blocks!

Now that it has arrived safely inside the observatory, the mirror will be removed from its storage box — using a custom-made vacuum lifting fixture — and prepared for coating in Rubin’s onsite coating chamber. Check back for news and images of the mirror coating process in a few weeks.

See more images of the mirror move

Financial support for Rubin Observatory comes from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Cooperative Support Agreement No. 1202910, the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science under Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515, and private funding raised by the LSST Corporation. The NSF-funded Rubin Observatory Project Office for construction was established as an operating center under management of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA).  The DOE-funded effort to build the the Rubin Observatory LSST Camera (LSSTCam) is managed by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC).
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science. NSF supports basic research and people to create knowledge that transforms the future.
NSF and DOE will continue to support Rubin Observatory in its Operations phase. They will also provide support for scientific research with LSST data.   




Contact   |   Employment   |   LSST Corporation

Admin Login

Back to Top