Coating and handling operation of an 8 meter telescope mirror at Paranal Observatory in Chile

Timelapse movie that shows the full mirror removal, handling, transport and coating sequence of a large 8 meter telescope mirror at ESO's Very Large Telescope on Cerro Paranal in Chile. The movie compresses an 8 day operation into 12 minutes.
More photos of Paranal astronomical observatory at www.atacamaphoto.com/
Music credit:
Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 - Introduction
Artist: Hartmut Haenchen

[@samsteel4456]

What is absolutely incredible is the fact that every single piece of equipment, the physical building, the hydraulic lifts, the "cleaning arm"....absolutely everything is designed around that single mirror with the sole purpose of making it as reflective as possible. Absolutely amazing engineering.

[@JasperJanssen]

It looks to me like there are several buildings on that mountaintop that are near identical. There may be two or four of these mirrors sharing all the support systems. Which would lessen costs a lot (and interferometric imaging would give you much better resolution when using all simultaneously). Yup, Paranal consists of quad 8.2m mirrors and an interferometry setup. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Large_Telescope

[@thekaisaproject413]

Yeah, so what are all the engineers doing on a daily basis when the lens is not in "the shop" for maintance?

[@atacamaphoto]

@@thekaisaproject413 there are 10 telescopes with their astronomical instruments on the mountain which need preventive and corrective maintenance. In addition the engineers and technicians do improvements and technology upgrades. There is more than enough to do to keep everyone very busy😀

[@ottoleisering7855]

People rarely consider the behind-the-scenes support technology of scientific research. I think this video is excellent in displaying the efforts required. Kudos!!

[@michaelexman5474]

Otto Leisering academia is a cut throat business

[@ottoleisering7855]

@@michaelexman5474 Yes, I agree. People, sharpen your razors and prepare for battle.

[@itsmeagain7825]

@Phantom Phlier .....I learnt that you are a narcissist !

[@mindwideopen2579]

@Phantom Phlier that it takes a lot of people and a lot of rarely noticed infastructure, specialized machines and expensive technology to recoat a single mirror. I learned enough in this "poorly executed video" that I'm willing to explore further. Oh, and I learned that some people will be negative about anything.

[@vladnickul]

and behind it are some years pf the real research

[@Splits-man]

The engineering requirements of a process like this would be mind boggling. Maintaining the correct dimensions throughout on a nano scale, allowances for temperature and humidity etc. Wow!

[@hermanwilliamsiii6986]

David Handley It make me love human beings that much more

[@nathankaye1577]

Exactly what I said David.

[@derbigpr500]

@Summit X These telescopes are far more powerful than Hubble. Hubble is just famous, and also in space so it doesn't have to see through atmosphere.

[@phubarnow5388]

@@derbigpr500 Thats why most of the observatories are in Chile, not much "atmosphere" to look thru, no water vapor at all.

[@JasperJanssen]

Summit X Hubble was basically a leftover KeyHole spy satellite slightly adjusted for far-field observations - at any given time there are a couple dozen KeyHoles in orbit, and they’re looking at earth. Capabilities today are far greater than in the 80s - we could be looking at the stars a lot better than Hubble does today, if we’d have just one of the previous-generation ones (perhaps the no longer necessary spare) repurposed to astronomy.

[@iamanon4u]

Very cool. I love the scene with the transporter returning to replace the mirror and the shadows of the clouds rolling across the hills.

[@kennethbransford820]

I was moved by the same thing.

[@kennethbransford820]

p.s. Sounds like a song " the shadows of the clouds rolling across the hills".

[@madMARTYNmarsh1981]

Excellent choice of music for the reveal of the freshly coated mirror.

[@pancake_crab4457]

This is so cool. You always get to see the images created with these telescopes. But rarely do we get to see them working, or just how big of an operation it is to maintain them. Thanks for uploading this, dude.

[@Raptorman0909]

Very well done video providing a glimpse of the work and technology needed to maintain these large telescopes and doing so with an artistic sense. Much appreciated.

[@sirmeowcelot]

this is the next level of the next level.

[@evanofelipe]

This is most interesting to see, albeit from a distance. And it made me remember my old school's humble attempts to design and build our very own Newtonian telescope and of the hours we spent as boys, after school time in the Science Lab manually shaping grinding, under close guidance, the 10" concave lens in our efforts to precisely create the mirror's correct curvature simply with great effort, pots of grinding paste, lots of optimism and water. It took us years and we were still engaged in the process when I came to leave school at 16. So from the age, of 12 our school Science Teacher, Mr Morris introduced me to the marvels of Astronomy which has intrigued and stayed with me ever since, now more than 60 years on. It may have been 'light years' away in terms of technology and required precision, but seems as only 'yesterday' when I recall the enthusiasm we all shared with the prospect of undertaking that 'impossible task'. If only he could have seen this amazing engineering, he would have loved it as I do.

[@hermanwilliamsiii6986]

Yes, I could watch this over & over☺️ It thrills me to no end seeing super brilliant folks literally creating all this technology and precision as well as whole buildings designed specifically to render this process”

[@hermanwilliamsiii6986]

J. P. Yet no one really takes them serious & not a single dollar will be lost because of their madness

[@luthmhor]

Incredible. The ingenuity that went into everything to maintain the mirrors, awesome.

[@mystictraveler8022]

I realize I'm a little late to the party, but the whole time I watched the incredible precision work being done on this 22 ton piece of glass, I kept thinking, "just one dropped tool, just one dropped screw, one metal shaving, one errant piece of steel, or just one burst hydraulic fitting,.......anything vaguely similar and the entire mirror could be made totally unusable." Hats off to the technicians and engineers responsible for the recoating of the mirror. Personally, I wouldn't want to be any where near the mirror when this procedure was underway. I hope they were all getting paid the "big bucks" for their work...they certainly deserved it. Like they say, "With great risk comes great reward."

[@astir8275]

Great footage and timelapse!

[@mikemiller5637]

These shots make humans look like a weird, complicated ant colony

[@madferret2045]

Aren't we just a really smart ant colony though?

[@mikemiller5637]

I mean we do share a lot of similar qualities I guess.

[@WildPhotoShooter]

How mirror technology has changed ! When I was a boy I used to be amazed at the 200 inch instrument on Mt Palomar which was in the Guinness book of records for decades.

[@ginskimpivot753]

A pleasure to watch. Thank you so much for taking the time.

[@seantraynor1484]

Gerhard, what a great video - thanks for producing this - beautifully photographed and amazing engineering. Well done.

[@atacamaphoto]

Thank you very much Sean. The only pity is, that they put ads over it. Reason is, that I used one piece of music that is licensed.

[@MArifinDobson]

Amazing, that takes a lot of Beskar to create the mirror. Awesome team, infrastructure and everything! thanks for the great video.

[@mixolydian2010]

The landscape and clouds were incredibly beautiful when it was on its way back.

[@ts67garp]

I'm not an astronomer, I'm an engineer. And the science behind astronomy is 'astronomical'! ;-) But this is engineering at it's best. Each and every item is custom made for this telescope. Just to name a few of the items I noticed (and I probably left out tons)... The mirror it self, the frame that holds the mirror, the loading and unloading mechanism for the mirror and frame, the transport mechanism to get it into and out of the observatory, the lift that brings it down on the truck, the truck itself is specially built, the road that lead from the base of the mountain to the top where the observatory is, the mirror cleaning machine, the mirror coating machine, the vacuum pumps, and, and I can keep on going. Each single item has been engineered. I bet that if you would start counting all engineered items that make this observatory happen, you would most likely get into the millions of items that where engineered that made this possible. It's a great achievement, and this short video showed something extraordinary. Thank you for this video!!!!!!

[@The6677yu]

I was surprised by the use of bungee cords.

[@AugustusOakstar]

Yes my father was an Engineer, in the USA a P.E. ( professional engineer) cannot have a supervisor who is Not an Engineer. I hope everyone can see why this is necessary. Considering that he was involved with the Gemini spacecraft test procedures, and later the Apollo program. You can't have non-engineers making T. O. changes to your specifications at will, with out being an Engineer. One thing though, fewer engineers are making discoveries in the sciences. Theoretical science usually describes what they want to do, and then an Engineer carries out the program. Look at CERN and the LHC, the Higgs was found, Peter Higgs and and few physicists get the Nobel. There needs to be a really big prize for excellence in Engineering.!

[@pavel9652]

Excellent comment! I think you have skipped the entire factory where mirrors have been produced in the first place ;) There are videos on the YT showing the production process of The Giant Magellan Telescope mirrors, which I highly recommend to watch. Live long and prosper! ;)

[@ralanham76]

WOW that reflection when it was done. 👍

[@johnbockkom9361]

Wow, thank you for showing this.

[@Rocketman88002]

The kind of team that can bet their lives the job is done so well it couldn't be done better! Amazing teamwork.

[@ao2528]

Incredible expensive and very precise operation, excellent work, I wish I was part of it.

[@andrewphillip8432]

Everything about this video was incredible. So glad I stumbled upon it

[@paulinhoespindola8959]

Excellent teamwork, wonderful result.

[@andreaswoehlms2783]

war doch mal schön auch Eure Alltagsprobleme kennen gelernt zu haben. Danke für die Eindrücke

[@mrmullett1067]

Awesome video .. nice to see the engineering behind the scenes. That is some huge light bucket. Thank you for sharing this I often wondered how it was done. A beautifully choreographed team of real professionals.

[@marcomigliavacca1270]

Amazing engineering and amazing technology ! I love it !! 🤩

[@robertperez357]

It feels good to be human ,I feel proud and happy to see what we can do working together, hurray for those smarter ones who worked on this ,thank you .

[@johna-rutte9015]

Fantastic video...Welcome to Chile..

[@atacamaphoto]

Thank you very much

[@movax20h]

Awesome job. And awesome engineering of all the custom tools, procedures and management of the whole project. It is holistically designed process of entire life cycle. All the clearances, holding tools etc, must be designed in advance to allow for all the future procedures to be carried over efficiently and correctly. On a first try. Countless hours of simulations and checks even before any of this was built.

[@Bushcraft-xz6xd]

Imagine having this telescope up in space, the clarity of what could be seen?

[@giorgiodelfrate4482]

Thanks for the wonderful video.

[@MrTrapper28]

Truly stunning in so many ways. X

[@steveburley3738]

Very satisfying video. Thank You.

[@logitech4873]

Incredible shot planning!

[@Lostpanda123]

Thanks for sharing this video! Really cool job you have! ;)

[@PabloA64]

This inspirates me to recover my 6 inch mirror. RIGHT NOW. Thanks you

[@davidgiesen1832]

Pablo, have you used First Contact Polymer? Used by NASA, LIGO, Lockheed and many others! www.photoniccleaning.com/FCPTestimonials-s/130.htm

[@manuelcornejomunoz1585]

Excellent video. Thank you

[@77gravity]

The refinished mirror is a thing of beauty.

[@drawingboard82]

This is super turbo cool. Thanks so much for sharing. Very impressive.

[@WhatAWondWorld]

This is amazing and very interesting. Thanks

[@zgabrel]

what an achievement! every last piece of it to come back in place exactly as it was ! wow! and that mirror flex! for a second i held my brief there! extraordinary! truly remarkable!

[@atacamaphoto]

That mirror flex is actually an optical effect of the very wide angle lens of the Gopro. So nothing to worry about :-)

[@dannybahee2540]

Amazing work👍👍

[@MultiGamerClub]

Listening to this music makes me go back to habbo in 2010 where everything was blizz, life was wonderful and i miss everything.

[@prosanis1216]

When I watch this kinda vids I’m always telling me self it’s a kinda magic!!👍👍beautiful, thanks for sharing this beautiful video with me 🙏

[@eduardosampoia5480]

I would love to see that thing being shattered into a million pieces.

[@allegrorisoluto3728]

Truly amazing.

[@user-ng3ps6xw1c]

It is amazing work to clean, peel-off coating layer, coat on the dia 8m surface.

[@shuaige3360]

Congratulation to all the team!!

[@Aquacentric]

The Beautiful thing to watch.

[@sergiogar2279]

Lindo ver como é um telescópio desse tamanho ser desmontado. Parabéns, ótimo vídeo.

[@kimfraga7957]

Fantastic job

[@speckitis]

Beautiful video.

[@Chris-jq8ne]

Really well put together video, to the person who put the together the music... beautiful👏👏👏👏

[@atacamaphoto]

Thank you very much!

[@andreagiudici926]

amazing video! thank you sir!

[@michaelbeary]

And all done on the same day, amazing.

[@atacamaphoto]

The hole process takes about one week

[@yashsvidixit7169]

Can't imagine the complexities in managing projects like these. Collaboration, hard work and intelligent minds are the ingredients I guess.

[@nathankaye1577]

Amazing Engineerering, mind blow 😮

[@heru-deshet359]

A beautiful work of art. Despite this, there is no fanfare like there was when the mirror for Mt Palomar was made and delivered.

[@johnmanderson2060]

Great video ! Thanks a lot 👍🏻😉

[@ius8998]

" We humans are an interesting species. Able to create the most wonderful dreams, and the most horrible nightmares "

[@matto9734]

Exactly my thoughts... we are not the pinnacle of evolution, just a bypass phenomenon. If we only manage to get rid of all the destructive industries and behaviours we would possibly sustain.

[@colinrasmussen2298]

I think you are quoting Contact, but it's true. Imagine if we could take all that money that gets spent on weapons and actually do something useful with it.

[@dmt3339]

I had to watch the part starting at 10:10 a few times, the shadow of the clouds with the mirror making its way back up the mountain was amazing.

[@ToaSirian]

Truly incredible!

[@georgelareese1086]

What a work of art.

[@Hellefleur]

10:10 I love the way the sunlight just flows over the terrain

[@makismakiavelis5718]

Thank you for uploading this. Every aspect of this operation is insane. My mind races thinking of the little things like for example the tight tolerances and precision the welding job required on the various steel rigs, jigs and fittings or how difficult it must be to properly align that huge thing, every time they need to hydraulically lift it, lower it and hoist it. One question I have: Do they coat the mirror with the Physical Vapor Deposition method and whether or not said method requires polishing the mirror afterward.

[@charlyschramm5333]

This is just amazing

[@ssnoc]

I am amazed at the scale of this operation -

[@orojasp]

El video es muy bueno felicitaciones!!

[@tgeos]

No words Amazing video I even doesn't thougt about it

[@lesliedycke9795]

An amazing video! The mirror may be the star of the show, but the engineering is staggeringly beautiful as well. I'm amazed that your able to maintain a vacuum seal around a mirror perimeter that large. And the hydraulics, you must have redundancy back up systems for that. Hats off to the scientists and engineers who built that marvel. Alas, I have a thousand questions.

[@atacamaphoto]

The vacuum is not done on the edge of the mirror. The mirror is placed into a vacuum vessel that has its own seal.

[@lesliedycke9795]

@@atacamaphoto Yes I understand that but still an impressive accomplishment nevertheless. Great work.

[@muhammadsolihin7310]

love background music..

[@SuperHyee]

Thanks and respect !

[@mcgavin098]

We are the universe trying to understand itself. This video is an illustration of this concept.

[@steveread864]

I am amazed that it all took just 8 days.

[@jerryjones1344]

mind boggling brilliancy

[@colinrasmussen2298]

After watching this I went out and gave my telescope with a 0.30 metre mirror a hug.

[@BilalAslamIsAwesome]

10:10 is such a gorgeous shot!

[@jamesdriscoll9405]

I re-wound it first time through. I was reminded of eastern Oregon, only dryer. Great camera work.

[@SuperRahul73]

Restoring an eye to infinity !! WOW !!!

[@timp.5298]

Amazing

[@astrophotocologne]

Hallo Gerhard, gerade wurde mir dieses Video von KZbin vorgeschlagen. Beeindruckend! The perfect machine. Liebe Grüße

[@atacamaphoto]

Hallo Frank, so trifft man sich also wieder. Es freut mich sehr, dass Dir mein Video gefaellt. Ich werde mich mal auf Deinem Kanal umsehen, sieht vielversprechend aus.

[@astrophotocologne]

@@atacamaphoto das würde mich freuen. Ich teile mal dein Video auf meinem Facebookkanal, das interessiert sicher den ein oder anderen.

[@Oscar4u69]

amazing

[@TickyTack23]

I've been looking at making a sputtering chamber, I never thought to use the lens as the chamber cover.

[@johnmayer5920]

You would think thereWould be more clean room suits on that job! What amazing things telescopes are!

[@estudiom142]

fantastic!! thanks!!

[@DiyEcoProjects]

10:10 mesmerizing timelapse of sunlight over mountains

[@bugsy9069]

Very cool, but I was waiting for some images at the end. The test drive, if you will.

[@haroldneely9253]

I have always liked telescopes and that was awesome

[@muzzamoose]

Great video, thnx.

[@epsospremium6088]

Impressive machines. Good job ! It's also a *very clear demonstration* that we can not scale the mirror telescopes 100X. We need some other technology, if we want 100X or 1000X improvement from telescopes.

[@atacamaphoto]

For future larger telescopes the mirror is a segmented one.

[@brycering5989]

I will always remember the day I watched this, Ears bleeding, I felt it was well worth the pain, in fact, I felt it only helped to increase the sensation of awakening, the realization we are going to see the things we need to see, like a newborn baby opening its eyes and assessing it surroundings, This is a day to remember.

[@brycering5989]

@Christian William I had the volume too loud. didn't want to miss anything ;)

[@astrodiver1]

Thank you!

[@KnowledgePerformance7]

Just impressed it's still in spec after being put on a truck

[@TheWireEDM]

These mirrors are corrected with hundreds or thousands of actuators to get the geometry perfect, so there is no need for it to be absolute in its dimensions.

[@museebqazi924]

Very nice

[@blakeyonthebuses]

Unbelievable! The technology today. I've just looked at images from the James Webb telescope. Beyond words.

[@brentweissert6524]

Such beautiful things we build! There is an artistry in this technology. I am reminded of what Joseph Conrad said of a sailing ship of which he was captain: "She was born in the thundering peals of hammers upon iron, in black eddys of smoke, under a gray sky on the banks of the Clyde. The clamorous and somber stream gives birth to things of beauty that float away into the sunshine of the world to be loved by men."

[@geological76]

what a thrill when it just came out of the coating room!!. bring it to my house !!. I dares not think how it could be amazing just for visual use only ......(it collect more than 300% more light than mr. Hubble)

[@smartingamerica]

No, you are only comparing their diameters. The light-collecting AREA of the 2.4 meter-diameter Hubble Space Telescope mirror totals about 4.5 square meters. The 8.2-meter-diameter Paranal mirrors each have an area of over 52.8 square meters, which is over 1167% more light-gathering area than that of the Hubble mirror - and the 4 VLT mirrors working together gather over 4668% the amount of light than the Hubble Space Telescope can. Yet the Hubble does not have to look through a murky distorting atmosphere that blocks some wavelengths of light.

[@colindowden1430]

should be about due to be recoated again, amazing feat of engineering and forethought in the design

[@pavel9652]

The VLT is made of four instruments, so they recoat one mirror every 6 months I believe ;)

[@schmetterling4477]

Wow. Just wow.