Telescope design complete

Cambridge-based scientific software consultancy Observatory Sciences has completed the design study for the Observatory Control System software for the new Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST).

The LSST is a US project, headquartered in Arizona, that is building a design of telescope that has a field of view 1000 times larger than that of existing large telescopes and an excellent light gathering capability.

The LSST will image an area of the sky roughly fifty times that of the full moon every 15 seconds, opening a broad window on objects that change or move rapidly. This could include supernova explosions which can be seen halfway across the universe, nearby asteroids which might potentially strike Earth, and faint objects in the outer solar system, far beyond Pluto.

Using the light-bending gravity of dark matter, the LSST will chart the history of the expansion of the universe and probe the mysterious nature of dark energy.