Secondary Mirror of ELT Successfully Cast
Big news: the secondary mirror blank for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) has just been cast.
In a nail-biting process, the still glowing hot mirror blank was lifted carefully onto a truck at the SCHOTT melting facility...
...transported at walking-pace through Mainz, Germany, with a police and fire escort...
...and arrived safely at the SCHOTT annealing facility.
At 3.5 tonnes and 4.2 metres across, the ELT M2 will be the biggest secondary mirror in existence…
...and also the largest convex mirror ever produced.
This is a major step towards building the world’s biggest eye on the sky.
The mirror blank will very slowly cool and then be shipped to France
for grinding and polishing to exactly the right shape.
Transcribed by ESO; Translated by —