Out of the Oven

Giant Magellan Telescope April 2012 | Early this year the second of the GMT’s 8.4m primary mirror segments was cast at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory Mirror Laboratory. Since mid-January the mirror blank has been slowly cooling and undergoing a process of “annealing.” During this phase the mirror blank is cooled in a carefully controlled manner to ensure that there are no strains or stresses locked into the glass as it slowly contracts while cooling.  more>