Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Giant Furnace Opens to Reveal 'Perfect' LSST Mirror Blank

The mirror blank for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) has been successfully cast at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory Mirror Lab. The telescope requires three large mirrors to give crisp images over a record large field of view. The two largest of these mirrors are concentric and fit neatly onto the 51,900 pound and 27.5 foot in diameter mirror blank. Carnegie Mellon is one of 23 universities, national laboratories and corporations involved in constructing the telescope.

LSST press release, video and images: http://www.lsst.org/News/LSSTC_08.shtml