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Contact us

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science will support Rubin Observatory in its operations phase to carry out the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. They will also provide support for scientific research with the data. During operations, NSF funding is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF, and DOE funding is managed by SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), under contract by DOE. Rubin Observatory is operated by NSF NOIRLab and SLAC.

NSF is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science. NSF supports basic research and people to create knowledge that transforms the future.

The DOE Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

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  1. For Scientists
  2. Survey, instruments, and telescopes
  3. Key numbers

Key numbers

This page is intended as a quick reference list of key numbers that describe the Rubin Observatory system and the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).

See also the Rubin key numbers page for a public audience.

Telescope

  • Etendue (AΩ): 319 m2 deg2
  • Field of View (FOV): 3.5 deg (9.6 deg2)
  • Primary mirror diameter: 8.4 m
  • Mean effective aperture: 6.423 m (area weighted over FOV)
  • Final f-ratio: f/1.234
  • Camera weight: 6,746 lbs (3,060 kg)
  • Mirror (M1+M3 glass mirror only) weight: 35,900 lbs (16,284 kg)

Camera

  • Pixel count: 3.2 Gpixels
  • Focal plane: 189 4k x 4k science CCD chips
  • Pixel pitch: 0.2 arcsec/pixel
  • Pixel size: 10 microns
  • Filling factor: >90%
  • Minimum exposure time: 1 s

Filters

The 5-sigma point source depths (AB mag) for single exposures and for coadded images idealized for stationary sources after 10 years (Bianco et al. 2022) are:

  • u: 23.9, 26.1 mag
  • g: 25.0, 27.4 mag
  • r: 24.7, 27.5 mag
  • i: 24.0 , 26.8 mag
  • z: 23.3, 26.1 mag
  • y: 22.1, 24.9 mag

Visit GitHub to download the spectral response and throughputs.

Above: The Rubin Observatory bandpasses. The vertical axis shows the total throughput. The computation includes the atmospheric transmission (assuming an airmass of 1.2, dotted line), optics, and the detector sensitivity. For more details, please see the LSST overview paper.

Observatory site

  • Median Atmospheric PSF with outer scale of 30m: 0.67” (Tokovinin)
  • Site: El Penon, Cerro Pachon, Chile
  • Site coordinates: latitude -30:14:40.68, longitude -70:44:57.90
  • Altitude: 2647 m
  • Site observatory code: X05
  • Photometric time: 53% of night time (estimated)

Survey

  • Survey duration: 10 years
  • Standard visit exposures (expected): 2 x 15 s
  • Median (Mean) visit time: 39 s (42.2 s)
  • Photometric accuracy: 10 mmag
  • Astrometric accuracy: 50 mas
  • Astrometric precision: 10 mas

Learn more about the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).

Data volume

  • Nightly data size: 20 TB/night
  • Real-time alert latency: 60 s
  • Alerts per visit: ~10,000
  • Alerts per night: ~10 million
  • Number of data releases: 11
  • Final database size (DR11): 15 PB
  • Final number of objects (DR11):
    • 20B galaxies
    • 17B resolved stars
    • 6M orbits of solar system bodies

Learn more about the Rubin data products.

Didn't find what you're looking for?

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Glossary and Acronyms

Look up Rubin-related terms and acronyms in English and Spanish.

Rubin Glossary and Acronyms

Rubin Community Forum

Ask questions, get help, report bugs or errors, and join in discussions about Rubin Observatory and its data products, pipelines, and services.

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