Casting team members at the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab loading 22,500 pounds of E6 Ohara borosilicate glass into the 6.5-meter honeycomb mold for the San Pedro Mártir Telescope mirror.
Casting team members at the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab loading 22,500 pounds of E6 Ohara borosilicate glass into the 6.5-meter honeycomb mold for the San Pedro Mártir Telescope mirror. (Ray Bertram, Steward Observatory, University of Arizona) BERKELEY — With the casting today (Wed. Aug. 26) of a 6.5-meter mirror in Arizona, Mexican and American astronomers have taken the first step toward creation of a major new telescope that will survey infrared objects in the northern sky with unprecedented sensitivity. When completed in 2017, the telescope will begin the Synoptic All-Sky Infrared Imaging Survey (SASIR) to look for faint infrared sources - ranging from dim, nearby stars to distant quasars - and flashes of infrared light from supernovas and other transient sources. Before being filled with glass, the mirror mold is loaded with 1,020 hexagonal cores. The cores will be removed after several months, when the mirror blank has cooled and been lifted off the furnace hearth, leaving the voids of the honeycomb glass structure.
TO READ THIS ARTICLE, CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT
And extend your reading, free of charge and with no commitment.
