Press Releases: Vera C. Rubin Observatory

14 April 2015: A new ground-based telescope promises unprecedented information about distant galaxies, nearby asteroids and even the mysterious dark energy that is accelerating the expansion of our universe.

13 August 2010: In a report released this morning, “New Worlds and New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics,” a prestigious committee convened by the National Research Council for the National Academy of Sciences ranked the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) as its top priority for the next large ground‐based astronomical facility.

2 September 2008: The single-piece primary and tertiary mirror blank cast for the LSST is "perfect", say project astronomers and engineers.

17 March 2008: 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.

3 January 2008: The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) Project is pleased to announce receipt of two major gifts: $20M from the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences and $10M from Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

5 January 2007: Google has joined a group of nineteen universities and national labs that are building the Large Synoptic
Survey Telescope (LSST).

17 May 2006: Cerro Pachón, an 8,800-foot (2,682-meter) mountain peak in northern Chile, has been selected as the site for the proposed Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST).

22 August 2005: The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) has been awarded a four-year, $14.2 million Cooperative Agreement with the National Science Foundation to design and develop a world-class, 8.4-meter telescope scheduled for completion in 2012.

11 January 2005: The LSST Corporation has awarded a $2.3 million contract to the University of Arizona Steward Observatory Mirror Lab to purchase the glass and begin engineering work for the 8.4-meter diameter main mirror for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). This award was announced today in San Diego at the 205th meeting of the American Astronomical Society.