Site in Northern Chile Selected for Large Synoptic Survey
Telescope 19 May 2006 Cerro Pach?n, an 8,800-foot (2,682-meter)
mountain peak in northern Chile, has been selected as the site
for the proposed Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST).
Additional images for this LSST Press Release can be found at:
http://www.lsst.org/News/LSSTC_04.shtml Scheduled to see "first
light" in 2012, the 8.4-meter LSST will be able to survey the
entire visible sky every three nights with its three-billion
pixel digital camera, probing the mysteries of Dark Matter and
Dark Energy, and opening a movie-like window on objects that
change or move on rapid timescales: exploding supernovae,
potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids as small as 100
meters, and distant Kuiper Belt Objects. The decision to place
the LSST on Cerro Pach?n follows a two-year campaign of in-depth
testing and analysis of the atmospheric conditions and quality
of astronomical "seeing" at four sites in Chile, Mexico, and the
Canary Islands. The eleven members