Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope is a large-aperture, wide-field, ground-based telescope designed to take deep images of the entire southern sky in six optical colors every few nights. The resulting database can be used to address a wide variety of outstanding questions in astronomy and fundamental cosmology. On the basis of its broad scientific reach and advanced state of technical readiness, LSST was ranked as the highest priority new large ground-based facility in the most recent decadal survey in astronomy and astrophysics. The project is now slated to move into construction in 2014. I will provide an update on the technical status of LSST, and then concentrate on the use of this facility to constrain the properties of dark energy.