Top-End Assembly (TEA) on the Summit

March 8, 2021 | DiRAC News

The contracted team for the dome is now about 20 people who are focused on getting the dome enclosed before the TMA team arrives in January. The dome cladding is going up fast!

A major milestone was reached in the construction of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory last week. The “Top End Assembly”, which holds the secondary mirror (M2), was lowered into place within the massive enclosure. Though this is the smaller mirror on Rubin, M2 is a whopping 3.4-meters in diameter, and weighs over 1500 lbs.

This assembly milestone brings the observatory much closer to its expected beginning of full operations sometime in 2023. DiRAC and UW are playing a leading role in the development of software to support and operate the first phase of Rubin: the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). UW is also one of the four founding members of the LSST Corporation.

More details on TEA on the Summit here.