A camera with a 1.5-metre lens will be installed in a Chilean observatory

The SLAC laboratory at the U.S. Department of Energy worked on the largest video camera on the planet until this spring. Finally, the device, called LSST, was delivered to customers in Chile. The camera will be used by specialists from the Vera Rubin Observatory and visiting scientists for space research.

The digital camera weighs three tonnes and the lens is one and a half metres across. The camera was transported from San Francisco by cargo plane, a procedure that took about ten hours. It was then transported to Mount Cerro Pachón by lorry, which took another five hours. Every effort was made to keep the CCD sensors, which were spaced half a millimetre apart, in alignment without exceeding a deviation of 15 micrometres.