Teledyne e2v to supply sensors for giant astronomical camera

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope is an 8.4m telescope being constructed in Chile to carry out a 10-year survey of the sky to address fundamental astronomy questions about dark matter, dark energy, near-Earth asteroids, transient optical objects such as supernovae, and the formation of our Milky Way galaxy.

Teledyne e2v says it has designed a high-performance customised sensor to achieve exceptional sensitivity and stable performance with an extremely flat focal surface which delivers 3,200 Megapixels of image data per exposure. The camera will incorporate 189 large-area sensors which will be delivered to SLAC for construction into the cryogenically-cooled camera. Approximately one-third of the science sensors have already been delivered in a previous contract phase.

According to Teledyne e2v, the LSST has the largest digital camera ever built for ground-based astronomy and will be one of the world’s most powerful astronomical survey telescopes when commissioned in 2021. The telescope has a novel three-mirror design to provide high efficiency and a wide field of view.