The planned construction and completion of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) Project consists of phased activities. The initial telescope construction period will transition to a multi-year commissioning phase, which will conclude with final hand off to science operations. The initial telescope alignment will utilize laser tracker fiducials and nodal aberration theory (NAT) to demonstrate Engineering First Light with a three-mirror optical system and test camera, prior to the integration of the science camera. This plan exploits the diffraction limited on-axis image quality of the three-mirror design. Commissioning consists of final integration of the three LSST subsystems (Telescope, Camera, and Data Management), followed by on-sky science verification to show compliance with the survey performance specifications.

Date Published: 17 September 2012
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 8444, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes IV, 844444 (17 September 2012); doi: 10.1117/12.926657

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8444:
Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes IV
Larry M. Stepp; Roberto Gilmozzi; Helen J. Hall, Editor(s)