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August 4, 2015 - Current information on LSST Science Collaborations can be found here.

Mirror Lab workers load 51,900 pounds of glass into mirror mold.

The University of Arizona's Steward Observatory Mirror Laboratory is about to cast a new kind of giant optic for a unique wide-field survey telescope, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. The telescope will be the widest, fastest, deepest eye of the new digital age.

 Mirror Lab workers will begin loading 51,900 pounds of glass into the mirror mold early today.

The Mirror Lab will cast two mirrors as a single piece of glass for the telescope, known as the LSST, this month. The lab will cast an outer 27-foot-diameter (8.4 meter) primary mirror and an inner 16.5-foot-diameter (5 meter) third mirror in one mold. It is the first time a combined primary and tertiary mirror will be produced on such a large scale.

The LSST will be the world's largest, most powerful wide-angle survey telescope. It will provide time-lapse digital imaging across the entire available night sky every three days, enabling astronomers anywhere simultaneous access to study supernovae, planet-approaching asteroids or comets and other dynamic celestial chance events, and explore the nature of dark matter and dark energy.

The LSST will open a new window on the variable sky. Recent surveys have shown the power of variability for studying gravitational lensing, searching for supernovae, determining the physical properties of gamma-ray burst sources, etc. The LSST, with its repeated, wide-area coverage to deep limiting magnitudes will enable the discovery and analysis of rare and exotic objects such as neutron star and black hole binaries; gamma-ray bursts and X-ray flashes, at least some of which apparently mark the deaths of massive stars; AGNs and blazars; and very possibly new classes of transients, such as binary mergers and stellar disruptions by black holes. It is likely that the LSST will detect numerous microlensing events in the local group and perhaps beyond.

This page will be updated with information as it becomes available, approximately April 1st.

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