Kepler's removed the lens cap

Since launch, Kepler's enormous photometer instrument, backed by a 42-Megapixel CCD (the largest such device ever sent to space by NASA), has been protected behind a truly gargantuan lens cap. The mission announced late yesterday that the lens cap (more correctly, "dust cover") was successfully ejected, first tipping to one side on a "flyaway hinge" and then springing off into space. Now the photometer can start collecting starlight. The release states they still have a few weeks of calibration work to do before science data gathering can begin.