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Harris Corporation has announced the delivery of its largest mirror ever for a ground-based observatory that will produce the deepest, widest, views of the universe. Harris is part of the National Science Foundation team assembling the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) on the Cerro Pachón ridge in Chile. The company is providing the 3.5 meter, 3,500-pound secondary mirror and associated ground support equipment. In addition, the company is delivering the cell assembly that stabilizes the mirror to offset the effects of gravity during operation.
LSST will conduct an unprecedented, decade-long survey of the entire visible sky, detecting billions of new objects and contributing to the study of dark matter and dark energy. Operations are scheduled to begin in 2022. The achievement marks the successful conclusion of a great joint effort between LSST and Harris. Numerous challenges due to the mirror’s large size and convex shape were overcome with novel and custom fabrication and metrology solutions.
According to U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, the federal National Science Foundation investment is leveraging Harris’ skilled Rochester workforce to bring the farthest reaches of the universe into focus. A leader in Rochester’s world-class optics and photonics industry, Harris employees are making history by manufacturing the world’s largest terrestrial telescope active secondary mirror system in Rochester, New York and the cutting-edge achievement will push scientific frontiers, enable new discoveries, and chart the universe like never before.