back to article 3.2 billion pixel sky-watcher a step closer

The proposed 3.2 billion pixel Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) camera has been okayed by the US Department of Energy to proceed to its next stage of development. Receiving “Critical Decision 1” approval from the DoE means the project will get busy with the serious business of engineering design, scheduling, and …

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  1. Tom Maddox Silver badge
    Joke

    Pfft

    Everyone has been telling me how you need to focus on more than just the pixel count. Why don't they just have one of the ISS astronauts take a few pictures with an iPhone?

  2. SteveNZ

    @PFFT

    Give it a few years, and the iPhone 10 will probably come as standard with a 3.2 (or is that 3.4?) Gpixel camera

  3. jubtastic1
    Go

    6 petabytes

    Is that after compression? Because you'd think you'd get fairly exceptional compression ratios on the black bits.

    Anyone here knowledgable about the implementation of a petabyte sized storage array? Doubtfull anyone will ever ask me to build one but I'm curious all the same.

    1. Tom Stephenson
      Happy

      Re: 6 petabytes

      6 petabytes no problem... Just takes a bit of power to keep all those disks spinning.

      :-)

  4. Paratrooping Parrot
    Coat

    I hope the photos it produces are not in Jpeg format! I guess it will be a nightmare for Deep Sky Stacker. You will only get it if you are familiar with astrophotography. ;-)

  5. Arctic fox
    Happy

    But is it compatible with "Pure View"? All right only joking, that is a *very* impressive....

    ......piece of engineering. Oh and +1 for the Crocodile Dundee reference in the subheading.

  6. Steven Roper
    Stop

    Erm..

    "skywatcher will survey – and publish – the entire visible sky on a weekly basis"

    No it won't. Not unless it can see through thousands of miles of solid and molten rock. As I recall, Chile is in the southern hemisphere, so siting it there means that it won't be taking any pictures of the Ursa Minor / Draco / Ursa Major part of the sky any time soon...

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Tim Parker

      Re: Erm..

      "skywatcher will survey – and publish – the entire visible sky on a weekly basis"

      No it won't. Not unless it can see through thousands of miles of solid and molten rock. As I recall, Chile is in the southern hemisphere, so siting it there means that it won't be taking any pictures of the Ursa Minor / Draco / Ursa Major part of the sky any time soon...

      ..would they perhaps lie in the part of the sky that is not visible to the camera then ?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    New El Reg standard required.

    6 million Gigabytes? That's just silly...

    According to "average calculations", that would roughly be...

    0.7111 ejaculations.

    http://www.makeuseof.com/tech-fun/16875-terrabytessec-the-bandwidth-of-ejaculation/

    Be safe! Always transfer data wwearing a jacket unless you're sure it's all secure!

    (Would use the "Coat" icon, but not allowed to...)

  8. Nebulo
    Happy

    From that artist's impression ...

    ... I'd like to see a copper try and confiscate that when you tried to take a picture in a public place!

  9. John 62

    mirror size?

    article says 8.4 metre primary mirror, but the picture has a man standing beside the scope. 8.4 feet?

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