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J.A. Tyson (UC Davis), Z. Ivezic (U. Washington), S. Kahn (SLAC), M. Strauss (Princeton), C. Stubbs (Harvard), D. Sweeney (LSST Corp), LSST Collaboration
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope [\verb|http://www.lsst.org|] will provide the community with a leap in wide field survey capability. The LSST will be a community resource, with broad access to the data and no proprietary data withholding period. We encourage the community to think about how they might exploit the LSST data, and in particular how frequent multi-band imaging to 24.5 AB magnitude per 15 sec could enable innovative new science.
The 8.4-meter telescope and 3 billion pixel camera covering ten square degrees will be sky noise limited in less than 10 seconds in each of 6 optical bands (ugrizy). This wide-fast-deep capability is enabled by advances in microelectronics, software, and large optics fabrication.
The LSST system will have three main components: the \underline{telescope and optics}, the \underline{wide field imager}, and the \underline{system software}.
Significant developments have taken place in all three areas, as highlighted in the companion posters. Final site selection will occur this Spring. First light is scheduled for 2012, science operations for 2013. Our observing simulations show ~2000 exposures per each 10 square degree field, with total 20,000 square degree sky coverage and a 10-year survey. Key science drivers all utilize the same data and are representative of LSST's system capabilities:
\begin{itemize}
\item Precision Characterization of Dark Energy
\item Mapping the Milky Way
\item Taking an Inventory of the Solar System
\item Exploring the Transient Optical Sky
\end{itemize}
In addition to enabling all four of these major scientific initiatives, LSST will make it possible to pursue many other research programs. The community has suggested a number of exciting programs using these data, and the long-lived data archives of the LSST will have the astrometric and photometric precision needed to support entirely new research directions which will inevitably develop during the next several decades. The LSST will produce the largest non-proprietary data set in the world.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to www.lsst.org. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #4
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.