The universe is a big place, with billions of galaxies and billions of stars in each galaxy. There are also nearby objects like asteroids, as well as billions of stars in our own galaxy. With that many objects, something is bound to happen every day. The only problem is that you have to be looking to see it.

That’s where the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) comes in. Its job will be to take a picture of the universe every three days. The goal is simple enough: it will create “a movie-like window on objects that change or move on rapid timescales: exploding supernovae, potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids, and distant Kuiper Belt Objects.” See the web site for details:

LSST.org

This video provdes a nice overview:

In this video you can see the array of camera CCDs, the mirror, etc.

One of the most interesting things about the project is the camera. The LSST will use a 3.2 billion pixel digital camera to take its images, giving good resolution even though it is covering the whole sky over a relatively short time frame. Creating this camera has been a major project. For example, it weighs about 3 tons. It uses 2,000 sixteen megapixel CCDs to create the 3.2 billion pixel resolution. To reduce noise, the CCDs are chilled with liquid nitrogen. There is a nice description of the camera here.

This article discusses a recent $30 million infusion of cash that will help make the LSST a reality:

Microsoft Money Pushes Time-Lapse Space Camera Closer to Action