LSST – the World’s Largest Digital Camera – 3.2 Gigapixels

13 responses to “LSST – the World’s Largest Digital Camera – 3.2 Gigapixels”

1. 

   jurvetson

   Jun 3, 2011 at 3:30 am

   And a big camera deserves a big lens!
   And another interesting talk… tracing gamma rays back to their origin, two huge source lobes lurk outside our galactic center (putative dark matter):It’s also cool how they detect the gamma particles: they travel faster than the speed of light in our atmosphere, emitting Cherenkov light (analogous to a sonic boom, when something travels faster than the speed of sound).

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2. 

   flapjack1066

   Jun 3, 2011 at 4:50 am

   I hope that the couple of hundred nerds in the entire world that can make anything of the data really enjoy themselves! At least it looks like a bargain compared to the JWST. Considering the value of this to the average citizen of earth I think we might have been better off funding artists.

   Edits to clarify, having offended the rather touchy astronomy fan base:
   Sorry about this, but I suspect that we may be better off funding artists, not the arts vs science – let’s not go there – in this telescopic context because artists could produce something of equal utility to the overwhelming majority of people for a lot less money. What to do with the money is for another day. That’s society’s business. However, it seems to me that this telescope and other grand projects of this ilk are machines for doing two things: research valuable to a vanishingly small number of people, and making pretty pictures to appeal to the masses for continued funding for the afore mentioned small number of people. I feel for the researchers and support staff, but while pretty pictures (in attractive false colors – only makes sense) of galaxies and dust clouds are clearly worth something they could be generated by simpler means and most people wouldn’t know the difference if they were real or not.
   And with that I’ll clam up and quit harshing the mellow about telescopes.

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3. 

   BWJones

   Jun 3, 2011 at 6:32 am

   Wow! 30TB/night? I’d love to see the facilities down in Chile. Made the pilgrimage to Mauna Kea, but now I should take the cameras down to Chile. Field trip?

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4. 

   flytrue2

   Jun 3, 2011 at 9:40 am

   Comments like the one from flapjack1066 are always a bit of a shock and slightly disheartening. We are alive in the midst of the most significant period of scientific discovery in our species’ history and yet a large portion of humanity will never receive even the most rudimentary scientific education. Only with understanding is there invariably a sense of awe and a chance that unanswered questions will continue to inspire careers of determined inquiry.

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5. 

   obskura

   Jun 3, 2011 at 9:42 am

   @flapjack1066: It is indeed difficult to see the connection between equipment like this and an average citizen’s way of life (and I don’t know in what exact ways this telescope will contribute either).
   However, consider that your computer, mobile phone, the internet, etc. would not exist in its current form without detailed insights into quantum mechanics that we only have understood for a few decades (and cosmology contributes large amounts of knowledge to quantum mechanics and other areas of physics).
   E.g. the current 45nm processors use special dielectrics that are thick enough to reduce electron tunneling (which made up a large part of waste heat), but at the same time also transmit fields fast enough to switch the transistors at GHz rates. Also consider the marvel of producing 45nm structures using light that has a wavelength 5-10 times bigger. It is not possible to point at one particular discovery that enabled this, but we only have this body of knowledge because of nerds playing with expensive toys 🙂 (and, of course, sharing it with the entire world in form of research papers, conference talks, lectures and reports). One amazing thing about working in science is that nations, borders, protectionism, etc. rarely play a role, and in fact it’s easy to forget that such things exist…

   "We can track near earth objects and the asteroids’ trajectory back to their formation."
   … now that seems to have very direct applications. What was the name of that movie again where we destroy the asteroid headed for earth? 😉

   "We will see the weak gravitational lensing effect of dark matter. "
   As we don’t know yet what dark matter is, it is hard to say what we’ll make of it. But, there was a time (not too long ago) where we didn’t know much about electrons, photons, the duality principle, quantum entanglement and relativity – and now, we teach this stuff to high school kids (at least where I live…), we build working quantum computers, and directly use relativity of time (e.g. in the GPS system, to compensate for relativistic time shifts).

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6. 

   obskura

   Jun 3, 2011 at 9:57 am

   For anyone who wants to put research spending into perspective:
   http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1305

   Now we could discuss all day about the relative benefits to mankind of 68 billion/yr of research spending, compared to, let’s say, the 320 billion dollars for a couple of fighter jets …
   🙂

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7. 

   Astrocatou

   Jun 3, 2011 at 10:37 am

   As a keen (amateur) astrophotographer with a 1.6MPcamera…(!!)…I think this is great.
   VERY few places in science has research/development and data been as focused…or produced such new information…
   (Look how much time the Shuttle program devoted to keeping Hubble going…because its important)

   I just happened to post this (crude) example the other day…showing the progress in imaging technology in the last fifteen years…
   (my point is in the description note)
   [http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveh56/5784465998/in/photostream]

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8. 

   solerena

   Jun 3, 2011 at 4:58 pm

   yep, flapjack1066 landed on the wrong photostream:( Do not understand people who think this way… just cannot get it… maybe there are from some other planet… right, let’s spend money on junk food, wars, stupid TV shows, mindless entertainment and all other POPULAR things… and call people who CAN think and create something unique and interesting nerds or geeks… here we go! Makes me rather angry!
   Wonderful camera and looks like we are about the same height… mirror is huge too… is it really “dark matter” or looking for “dark matter” will lead us to discovering America there while trying to get to India…:D

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9. 

   nhr

   Jun 3, 2011 at 5:33 pm

   > Very wide: 40x the field of view of the moon in the sky.

   Very "wide" for an astronomy apparatus indeed, but putting it in perspective from a normal photography point of view, the LSST, at 40 moons, has a field of view approximately equal to that of a 800mm lens on the 24x36mm format…

    
   [http://www.flickr.com/photos/59996489@N00]
   > Considering the value of this to the average citizen of earth I think we might have
   > been better off funding artists.

   You mean, doing something like this, but properly — i.e. with 500 Euro or 1000 Swiss Francs banknotes, for example ?

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10. 

    Astrocatou

    Jun 3, 2011 at 6:32 pm

    The whole science off CCD imaging is (perhaps) best understood via work done with attempts to do astrophotography…

    There is a limit to how small we can make the pixels and still be good at getting faint signals..
    So meanwhile we need the (larger) CCD chips,and arrays.
    The technology being put into better and better sensors is a great bonus for all kinds of industrial processes.
    The CCD chips are used for testing millions of things…in medicine,labs,biology etc etc…
    Not just for making better Nikon’s…

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11. 

    msamaclean ©

    Jun 4, 2011 at 2:42 am

    Just reading info on the LSST two days ago. The newest theories on the origins of the massive gamma ray bursts will probably change our current view of the universe, its size or its singularity.
    Why do we do it…because it’s (out) there. It’s what we humans do, want to do, need to do. Yes, there are so many causes that we need to direct time & money & manpower to. This is most certainly one of them!

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12. 

    Victor1

    Jun 10, 2011 at 5:29 am

    I’m with flapjack … AND Obscura. The money wasted on ‘defense overkill’ dwarfs anything, and a culture that doesn’t even bring up the subject, let alone challenge it, is headed in this direction:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/opinion/05kristof.html?_r=1&am...

    But thinking something is wrong with people who don’t understand the value of these ‘amazing’ technologies that benefit people, has already missed the point that we’ve starved education for so long in favor of military and ‘intellectually exciting’ technologies, that the value of them falls on the deaf ears of the educationally starved… due to the kind of budget decisions toward technology of all kinds…. in other words, a world of intelligent machines, destructive or scientific, will not be appreciated by an under-educated population.

    As for the options of either spending money on technology or useless junk (Solerena), the overlooked option was education, which develops appreciation for both the sciences and arts. A highly educated and developed culture would more likely be choosing cool telescope project funding over absurd levels of military funding… and that culture wouldn’t need so much ‘defending’… and actually be well liked and respected, like the countries that align their priorities like that.

    Oh, ask a Native American what happened to the 20 million of them that were still alive before the greatness of the technology enabled ‘discovery of America’, and you’ll get a different perspective. America was ‘discovered’ thousands of years before Columbus, and its diverse and culturally rich population was taken over and mostly eliminated by a technology and military enabled change of population that might have seemed ‘great’ if you were of European decent.

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13. 

    jurvetson

    Mar 26, 2015 at 4:27 pm

    And now, LSST is fully funded by the government (news). Kudos to the private donations of Gates and Simonyi for the seed funding.

    Reply