Transporting and opening the mould containing the ELT secondary mirror blank

This sequence shows the still very hot blank of the ELT secondary mirror being transported to SCHOTT's annealing facility in Mainz, Germany . The mirror blank is carefully lifted onto a truck, escorted slowly through Mainz to the SCHOTT annealing facility, where the mould is opened. Here, the blank will slowly cool before being shipped by boat to France for shaping and polishing.