The National Science Foundation (NSF) agreed on Friday, August 1st, to fund the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) in constructing the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), a nearly $500M project. The LSST is designed to digitally image the sky for the span of a decade, and should be fully operational by 2022. Researchers at Northwestern are granted institutional membership to the LSST project through CIERA’s membership, allowing them the opportunity to prepare for LSST data when the telescope comes online. Astronomers at CIERA are interested in studying such fascinating topics as the birth and growth of black holes, stellar explosions, and dark matter in clusters of galaxies.