The world's biggest camera, capable of delivering 3200 megapixel image of the night sky, is about to show us its first-ever images. The monster camera, which is housed at the Vera C Rubin Observatory in Chile, is said to be able to see a golf ball from 15 miles away. On June 23 the first images from its ultra-definition sensor will be made public for the first time.
This moment has been a long time coming. We started reporting on this monster camera back in 2019, when the giant lens for the camera, which measures 5 metres across, was being assembled at SLAC, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, in California. The camera will capture 1000 images a night over the next 10 years, with the project's mission being to catalog 20 billion galaxies.
The First Look event at the observatory next week will unveil "a set of large, ultra-high-definition images and videos that showcase Rubin’s extraordinary capabilities to the world for the first time", we are told. "This will mark the beginning of a new era in astronomy and astrophysics".
The event will be shown live on the Vera C Rubin Observatory's YouTube channel and on its website at 11am (Eastern Daylight Time) / 4pm (British Summer Time) on Monday, June 23, 2025.
Hundreds of venues around the world will also be hosting watch parties that include a public viewing of the live stream. Check out the Rubin First Look Watch Party website to find out if there is a location near you.
Some of our earlier stories on the Vera C Rubin telescope's camera:
• World's biggest camera now ready to shoot 3,200-megapixel photos of outer space
