Rubin at Sunset in December 2023

View of Rubin Observatory at sunset in December 2023. The 8.4-meter telescope at Rubin Observatory, equipped with the highest-resolution digital camera in the world, will take enormous images of the southern hemisphere sky, covering the entire sky every few nights. Rubin will do this over and over for 10 years, creating a timelapse view of the Universe that’s unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Alt text: Rubin Observatory stands prominently in the center of this image atop its Chilean desert summit on Cerro Pachón. The sky is clear blue, and the setting sun glows from the left, illuminating the left side of the observatory. A large crane sits to the right of the observatory with its arm extended, looking small compared to the observatory building. The foreground summit area is shadowed, and the desert mountains recede into the distance, interspersed with a hazy atmosphere. The telescopes of the neighboring Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) are visible as tiny bumps on a distant summit to the right.