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Oct 28, 2026

Check out these earlier threads for more info on the venerable Vera C. Rubin Observatory, located on Cerro Pachón in Chile, with its 3.2 gigapixel wide-angle camera.

The observatory is named after astronomer Vera Rubin, who provided the first convincing evidence for the existence of dark matter.

https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/114150485502312076
https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/114731082323927544
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❞ Quoted postAkaSci 🛰️

The focal plane of the Vera C. Rubin telescope consists of 189 4kx4k charge-coupled device (CCD) sensors, arranged in a total of 21 3-by-3 square arrays. The system is cooled to about -100 °C to minimize noise. The 3.5° field of view of the 64 cm wide array is 40 times the area o

1. Pic othe LSST camera focal plane and detectors during assembly and testing
Credit: Jacqueline Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/slaclab/50212763208/

2. Schematic of LSST focal plane and detectors
Source: https://www6.slac.stanford.edu/lsst

FosstodonAkaSci 🛰️ (@[email protected])Attached: 1 image The focal plane of the Vera C. Rubin telescope consists of 189 4kx4k charge-coupled device (CCD) sensors, arranged in a total of 21 3-by-3 square arrays. The system is cooled to about -100 °C to minimize noise. The 3.5° field of view of the 64 cm wide array is 40 times the area of the full moon in the sky. Camera Data Rates: ~3.2 GBytes/sec peak raw data 😲 1 pixel = 16 bits (r

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Oct 28, 2026 · 00:03 UTC · Edited Oct 28, 2026 · 00:06 UTC

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AkaSci 🛰️@[email protected]

Oct 28, 2026

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The amazing Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

In April, even before observations formally began, the Rubin Solar System team submitted observations of over 11,000 new asteroids, which included ~380 new trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs).

What other celestial objects will it discover and what astronomical mysteries will it resolve?

Randall Munroe had some ideas 😄
https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/117006287296978668
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❞ Quoted postAkaSci 🛰️

xkcd #3278 by Randall Munroe. Title: Vera Rubin Observatory. Title text: 'Spurious signals from the kitchen' is harder for an optical telescope than a radio one, but with enough determination and creativity, I believe it's possible. See if you can identify some of the allusions a

Image of the comic.

[A Bingo card is shown, with 25 squares. They are as follows:]
Black hole tidally disrupting a star.
Planet nine.
Remnants of a former Milky Way companion.
10,000 new trans-Newtonian objects.
Object on interstellar trajectory.
Star being eclipsed by weird object.
Secret military satellite.
Kuiper Belt object that's a surprising color.
Mars-sized TNO.
Local group supernova.
Spurious signal from observatory kitchen.
Glitch in

FosstodonAkaSci 🛰️ (@[email protected])Attached: 1 image xkcd #3278 by Randall Munroe. Title: Vera Rubin Observatory. Title text: 'Spurious signals from the kitchen' is harder for an optical telescope than a radio one, but with enough determination and creativity, I believe it's possible. See if you can identify some of the allusions and puns in the bingo card of things the Vera Rubin Observatory might discover. https://xkcd.com/327

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