California

How scientists sent the largest camera in astronomy from California to Chile

by
a cross-bar crane hoist hanging from a support beam across the ceiling of a warehouse suspends a large black cylinder with two green straps, connected to the cylinder at four points. Four workers in orange highlighter apparel stand around the suspended cylinder, and another stands off to the left.

After two decades of work, the camera at the heart of the future Vera C. Rubin Observatory arrived home last week. It is now perched atop the Cerro Pachón mountain in Chile. This camera is the last major part of Rubin Observatory’s Simonyi Survey Telescope, on which it will be installed after several months of … Read more