Free Astronomy Magazine July-August 2023

JULY-AUGUST 2023 named the Simonyi Survey Tele- scope, is on track to receive the ob- servatory’s massive 8.4-meter mirror, 3200-megapixel LSST Camera (the largest digital camera ever con- structed for astronomy, funded by the Department of Energy and built at SLAC National Accelerator Labo- ratory), and other precision optical components. Rubin will be a pio- neering observatory designed to ex- plore the mysteries of dark matter, study the enigmatic nature of dark energy, and probe many other grand challenges of cosmology, as- tronomy, and astrophysics. It also will be the first observatory de- signed to study the changing Uni- verse, essentially making “movies” of the night sky. These remarkable capabilities come, in part, from the telescope’s revolutionary design. by NOIRLab − Charles Blue T he NSF-funded Vera C. Rubin Observatory has reached a major construction milestone with the completion of the tele- scope structure, known as the Tele- scope Mount Assembly. This desig- nation means that the telescope, Rubin Observatory reaches major milestone