  We complete the construction of vacuum string field theory by proposing a
canonical choice of ghost kinetic term -- a local insertion of the ghost field
at the string midpoint with an infinite normalization. This choice, supported
by level expansion studies in the Siegel gauge, allows a simple analytic
treatment of the ghost sector of the string field equations. As a result,
solutions are just projectors, such as the sliver, of an auxiliary CFT built by
combining the matter part with a twisted version of the ghost conformal theory.
Level expansion experiments lead to surprising new projectors -- butterfly
surface states, whose analytical expressions are obtained. With the help of a
suitable open-closed string vertex we define open-string gauge invariant
operators parametrized by on-shell closed string states. We use regulated
vacuum string field theory to sketch how pure closed string amplitudes on
surfaces without boundaries arise as correlators of such gauge invariant
operators.
