3/12/2020 Mirrors for the Giant Magellan Telescope

Who would have thought that the University of Arizona here in Tucson  manufactures some of the largest telescope mirrors in the world?

The Manufacturing Lab is actually located underneath the bleachers of their football stadium and for $20 you can tour the lab and see the Giant Mirrors in production.

Currently they are manufacturing seven giant mirrors 27.5’ (8.4 meters) in diameter for the 82’ (25 meters) long Giant Magellan Telescope that will be located on a mountain top in Chile.

8.4 meters is the largest mirror they can produce.  The limitation to going larger is the fact that  8.4 meters is the largest size they can ship over the U.S. road system.  The mirrors ship via truck or barge only.  They do not ship via air due to the size and weight of the mirrors.

Interesting that they are completely open about their design, testing, production cycle, delivery methods and more.  Nothing is proprietary since they are a publicly funded University.

If you get to Tucson we recommend you take this tour.  Well worth the price.

Here are some of our pictures.