Making the mirrors for the Giant Magellan Telescope at the University of Arizona

Time-lapse creation of the first of seven mirrors for the Giant Magellan Telescope. The Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab at the University of Arizona makes the largest, most precise mirrors for telescopes across the globe.

[@450asg]

This is for sure one of the hardest recipes i have ever followed

[@tamurhaq]

Did you end up with a 30 meter parabolic honeycomb mirror too? I hate when that happens

[@450asg]

@@tamurhaq Yeah, and the damn thing wouldn't start!

[@cosmin12365]

love this kind of conversation 😂

[@450asg]

@@cosmin12365 😉

[@thetigerstripes]

Do you need my pizza slicer ?

[@PassiveSmoking]

There's something immensely satisfying about watching all that glass melt.

[@jimdigriz2923]

Thank you, I was curious as to how this was done, and I must say that is incredible to watch, even the wife stopped as she was passing and sat down to watch.

[@TravisRichey]

This is fascinating and ingenious! My astronomy professor casually mentioned spin casting and I was like "What??" and had to see it in action. Thanks for posting! ~Trav

[@WildPhotoShooter]

Amazing process, these mirrors and the engineering just blows the mind.

[@jarod997]

... and I'm an engineer!

[@Declan-pg8cg]

Down-votes on this type of video are just bizarre. What, you have a better technique? It's inspiring to see this level of ingenuity, to make such a large optical part to very fine tolerances. Kudos all round.

[@ashscott6068]

It's flat-earth nutjobs, who think that space is fake, and the stars are just points of light on a magical dome.

[@MrBenedict317]

80 Flat earthers....

[@yonidellarocha9714]

Or maybe they are people who can't believe that a university would spell it 'Magellan' instead of 'Magallanes'. I would expect a normal person to make that mistake, but a university? They should be a little bit informed about how to spell a name if they want to use it...

[@Declan-pg8cg]

@@yonidellarocha9714 And why should they spell it "Magallanes"?

[@jmchez]

@@yonidellarocha9714 In Eglish it's, also, Christopher Columbus not Cristobal Colon. Why are you mad at someone else's language?

[@caspernicus5822]

I live in Oro Valley and took a field trip to the U of A like 4 or 5 years ago and they showed us all this. This is one of the things that got me obsessed with physics and engineering.

[@BRADBEAR-zy1uj]

That just tickled my fancy giblets down deep the ideas i had flowing through me!!😮

[@marcondespaulo]

If I knew anything about astronomy while I was in high school, I would have gone to work on machining stuff for telescopes.

[@ThomasBarone]

I'm pretty intelligent, very well read, mechanically inclined and a 60 year old lifelong scholar but this still boggles my mind! The scale, physics, chemistry, ingenuity and precision here is incredible.

[@RickSPI2009]

I took the tour the other day ... very cool !!!

[@ph11p3540]

I remember trying to mold hard toffee parts for a gingerbread house. It was quite a challenge molding some of the parts because the melted toffee could not ooze into some of the finer parts of the mold. The same challenges faced by these guys making this mirror's glass blank.

[@davidjacobsen3936]

When I worked at NOAO up on Kitt Peak I was there for open house house answering questions and help quests. The Magellan is only one of the great mirrors created at Arizona and by Dr. Angel.

[@Artemetra]

Spinning while molten must take a lot off the figuring job! In "The Perfect Machine" about Palomar's 200-inch mirror, they ground it for years and years before it was finally ready.

[@SulockMath]

An amazing process explained and shown in splendid fashion!

[@spacenomad5484]

I thought the size of the mirror was the most amazing part of this whole process... Then I completely lost it when I saw the oven spins to shape the mirror while it's liquid. Lost it again at those inside camera shots. Flipping the damn this was just icing on top. AWE-SOME!

[@NicolasMedtner]

Mat Kaplan of The Planetary Society - specifically the Nov. 23 - 2022 episode of Planetary Radio, sent me here. I'm in awe. There are so many titanic things that humans do, and space exploration makes for some of the grandest. The making of these mirrors is truly astonishing! :-)

[@pnamajck]

thanks for sharing … was very interesting.

[@turboboy1983]

Human beings are fuggin incredible

[@davidslefort6541]

It is years of calculations and chemicals analysis to determine how the composition of the glass will react and give the clearest light reflection so that the camera does get a precise amount of light and be clear

[@XxXDOMINIONXxX]

What? Glass is not reflective... dingus. They'll coat it with aluminum atoms in a vacuum to give the mirror finish after polishing.

[@davidslefort6541]

@@XxXDOMINIONXxX you did not understand what I meant it's not my first dealing with with telescopes duuh

[@davidslefort6541]

@@XxXDOMINIONXxX I ferget dingus you have a ignorant way to read people comments but hey it's okay you know what you need to learn about this and how much you need to learn about the manufacturing process of anything you just prove that you have no idea what I was saying oh well

[@davidslefort6541]

@@XxXDOMINIONXxX hey pie you know what I think it's the ignorance of your needs that you could not see what I meant but it is very difficult for the scientists to calculate the angle of the mirror but you didn't get my comment I watched so many times how mirrors are made and you think that I did not know what I was talking about but it is okay with me that you can't understand what I was saying 👏👏🤣🤣

[@davidslefort6541]

@@XxXDOMINIONXxX don't forget dingus that you have no idea who you reply to dingus you prove that you are seriously a good dingus I ferget you are a pie too dingus

[@yelectric1893]

Absolute gem

[@Ktkahghierm_quakeDddYyy]

just got my first reflector telescope interesting watching this.

[@stephenjones8928]

Incredible!

[@CR-ou4hl]

Amazing.

[@tigertiger1699]

Super impressive engineering

[@LambentOrt]

It's amazing.

Very cool!

[@Atlantianreborn]

Caller, "can i order a mirror please. It must be 8 mtrs in diameter and weigh 20 tons" "No problem sir, it will be ready in 5 years".

[@petersvalgaardhenriksen5824]

Amazing

[@epsospremium6088]

Nice mirror base ! Can we have 100X or 1000X improvements from the mirror telescopes ? Do we need some other technology, if we want a 1000X improvement ?

[@JohnRowley]

This was so interesting, thank you. It appears to unlisted as does not appear in your uploads list. Also, are there any plans to show how you create the reflective coating of the mirror or am I misunderstanding that such a stage even happens?

[@zianian]

Some Polishing... kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5u4lHWNjrt5b9U Re-coating... kzbin.info/www/bejne/nmWpc36Yg75la5o

[@StagnantMizu]

Engineering is amazing

[@glz1]

Wow Thanks

[@heru-deshet359]

Fascinating, but why wasn't the finished blank shown?

[@crave2527]

Wont get a comment/reply back from the creator any time soon or at all of this page so not worry about the voice to text misspelling. Just wondering 🤔 the budget and what it actually cost to build such a structure with out a individual splitting the bill?? Way to late now

[@iancrossley6637]

How close is it to the final curvature? Is there a video on grinding (+spec's)?

[@zianian]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5u4lHWNjrt5b9U

[@davidbrandenburg8029]

why don't they use aluminum blanks for telescope mirrors with the parabolic shape precast into it then it would only need polished?.

[@d.jensen5153]

I'm left to wonder how ceramic fiber is rigidized to that degree. And how does the borosilicate glass not flux it?

[@mk1st]

A-mazing

[@johnnymitz]

Cool.

[@davem3789]

I like the pace at which you guys work. Are you hiring?

[@carlsaganlives4141]

Ya call their shop - "How much longer on that mirror? When can I pick it up?"

[@cemoguz2786]

Is this posible on smaller size for amator telescope makers?

[@drhominidae]

How do they determine the amount of glass needed? Is it by weight or volume of the original blocks?

[@lllpatricklll1]

drhominidae it would have to be by volume.

[@joefarina9266]

Amazing work. Where were the mirrors made?

[@Penguin_of_Death]

6:19 The Richard F. Caris Mirror Laboratory at the University of Arizona - the mirror lab is actually underneath part of the Arizona Stadium...

[@gpcrawford8353]

How did you get the camera shots as the glass was melting at 1200 degrees centigrade or was that Fahrenheit either way it was incredulous from the UK 🇬🇧.

[@brucea9871]

The commentator said 1200° C (Celsius). He also said there were cameras inside the oven to record the melting of the glass.

[@crownlands7246]

Elegance

[@noggie42]

Why are captions disabled on this video? Please enable captions for accessibility.

[@facbl]

Incredible ! The most technological machine follows the principles of life ! Follow the sacred geometry, the golden ration, and the symbols that rules our planet ! At 1:46 we got the pentagon , at 4:15 the jewish David Star, the hexagon and many others ! Search for flower of life here in KZbin !

[@tomonabudget]

2inches height. HANG ON! I thought that all agencies related to space were using the metric system?! Cool video non the less. Amazing technology!

[@Mr30friends]

They might be using the metric system internally, but since the video is for an american audience, they convert it to imperial. Just a guess though.

[@maxk4324]

@@Mr30friends that's what I was going to say. Although there are a surprising amount of companies that manufacture stuff related to space (usually not space hardware but rather grounds side equipment) that require customers to use imperial units. Usually it's companies that don't get the majority of their business from space applications, so using metric would put them at a disadvantage to their competition (in the states of course)

[@nathansmith3608]

the shot at 2:59 is confusing - after the glass melts I can't tell if the number below the fluid level is 2 for 2 inches or just the reflection of the 5 above it & actually cm

[@klaus3794]

Is the while telescope installed and working now in 2019?

[@TAGGISmovieZz]

@ToothpickMcBrainy can't wait...

[@tinldw]

ToothpickMcBrainy these days, people like to delay stuff to obsolescence way too much...

[@maxk4324]

@@tinldw yes, I'm. Sure they are thrilled that things are delayed. They are so glad that they chose to delay this project that so msny people are waiting for. Just thrilled.

[@mglmouser]

Wish I understood why the mirror backing is this hollow glass. Since it's going to get coated in aluminium, why not start with aluminium?

[@Stevie75]

Because aluminium would expand and retratct too much and therefore deform the mirror. Aslo because Aluminium is soft, it is hard to pollish to a optical finnis.

[@rogergreen9861]

Outer Space reasons? Or perhaps getting to space reasons...to protect the mirror better during liftoff?

[@user-bx7nw1ve6y]

@@rogergreen9861 Giant Magellean will be ground-bound.

[@CKOD]

For the same mass, hollow structures are stiffer. Imagine a 1" steel bar, thats pretty long. Its going to have more than a bit of wiggle to it if you shake and flex it. if you did a 4" thin wall steel tube that contained the same amount of steel per length, its going to be a lot more rigid than the bar. For the glass mirror, if the honeycomb structure is only 60% as strong as if it was solid, but the mass was 30% as it if was solid, then the mirror is twice as stiff. And they need the mirror to be very stiff, because they want to minimize how much it changes shape as the telescope aims up and down, and gravity pulls on the glass at different angles.

[@RickSPI2009]

the amount of aluminum used to coat each mirror is only about 1/4 the amount in a typical 12 oz. can ... !!! and half of this ends up on the coater walls, not on the mirror surface. Glass is used for many reasons ... but yes, the final reflecting surface is aluminum.

[@Live.Vibe.Lasers]

now to launch all the fab stuff to space and start spincasting 100m mirrors outside of the gravity well

[@thucydides01984]

It wouldn't work in space. gravity is needed to get the desired curvature. Spinning molten glass in space would just create a perfect ring of glass.

[@Live.Vibe.Lasers]

@@thucydides01984 spin it on 2 axes. =)

[@davidyoung3288]

could honeycomb precut concave; so that when it spins; it would mold into shape and gradual decrease in temp wouldn't it keep parabolic thin mirror? but length to floor is flat; ? unless it would increase cost in operation; since each single tube has to be configured; individually;

[@kareemsalessi]

Does anyone have a link to some of the images this telescope has taken from anything???

[@billmilosz]

The telescope will not be complete until 2027.

[@kareemsalessi]

@@billmilosz OH !!! Where is this supposed to be installed ???

[@billmilosz]

@@kareemsalessi--The location of the telescope is Las Campanas Observatory, some 115 km (71 mi) north-northeast of La Serena, Chile and 180 km (112 mi) south of Copiapó, Chile, at an altitude of 2,516 m (8,255 ft). More Info => en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Magellan_Telescope

[@yelectric1893]

Can students see this?

[@kennethconnors5316]

genius

[@danz356]

Surely workers placing glass would wear hazmat suits or at least hair nets when placing glass into position?

[@davedelecto4148]

12mm? Do you mean 1/2 inch?

[@nadahere]

All telescopes will be displaced by our low cost [$5MM], compact telescope with a broad field magnification from 10X to continent resolution/discernability at 100 light year distance. Similar performance on the obverse side with table top sized microscopes where even the interior of the nucleus will be viewable. Path to atomic scale electronics manufacturing with real time defect removal for perfect outcomes each and every time..

[@haraldpettersen3649]

It is no wonder that such mirrors are expensive, when we see everything that is needed to produce them.

[@jackmclane1826]

They are all individual pieces handmade by highly skilled specialists. It's not like that furnace and all the rigging is used for hundreds of mirrors. It's probably individually made for just that purpose.

[@haraldpettersen3649]

@@jackmclane1826 - Yes, the oven is definitely made especially for this

[@davidbrandenburg8029]

it seems to me you could cut a hell of a lot of time out of the process if you used a 2" thick precast aluminum blank with the parabolic shape in it. then polish it to the correct parabola, and you wouldn't have to wait months for the glass to anneal!. not to mention you could do it in sections and put them together, after being polished and transported to the site of the telescope. aluminum would also be a lot easier to handle be a lot lighter than glass and a hell of a lot stronger and wouldn't cost as much!.

[@ghost2coast296]

don't forget about thermal contraction/expansion and the distortions it would cause

[@anggrimunki]

Glass is much more thermally stable than aluminium, so a better material for this purpose. Especially considering the GMT is supposed to be using the best materials possible for the best quality data it can get. Its all about the science and nothing about "easy/easier construction".

[@fbinsa5409]

This mirror is phenomenal! I work at this location, I clean it with Windex daily

[@MarkHopewell]

How the heck do you dream up how to do this, let alone do it?!

[@HYP3RACT1V]

I would build mirror at site and build around it.

[@davidbrandenburg8029]

you pay over a hundred dollars for a piece of glass, that's 8 inch in diameter and an inch thick if your lucky and is as flat as a slug. and then you either have to grind it yourself, or pay someone a small fortune to make you one. so I think a precast aluminum blank with the parabola shape would not only be a lot cheaper but would cut out a lot of time and effort currently being invested in mirror making. not to mention you could precast different focal points to fit any number of scopes.

[@caspernicus5822]

There's got to be some issue with aluminum that would be preventing them from doing this. It would make no sense to go with glass when a significantly cheaper alternative would be viable.

[@botyaltotertutal468]

I feel bad for the workers if they saw a pigeon started shitting on their prestine mirror

[@lawrenceshuda]

W.O.W.

[@davidbrandenburg8029]

frankly I think I will see if you can make them out of aluminum, then if so start having them manufactured. and I bet the can be a hell of a lot cheaper than glass parabolic mirrors.

[@firesurfer]

Until you can invent transparent aluminum, we are going to have to stick with glass.

[@carlsaganlives4141]

@@firesurfer Are. you guys fuckin' serious with the aluminum? Scotty, in one of the Star Trek movies, shows a fellow engineer how to make transparent aluminum

[@thucydides01984]

I think the reason for the glass is its smoothness. Transparency isn't the issue; the whole thing will be coated with reflective material - like any mirror. Aluminum would be nice, i suppose, but getting it smooth and parabolic is not yet possible i guess to the same degree.

[@carlsaganlives4141]

Wasn't joking . Actual scene in the movie.

[@firesurfer]

@@carlsaganlives4141 That's where I got the reference from. (I was joking) I believe the reason for glass is the stability. Aluminum expands and contracts too much. I just posted a couple more pics from my visit in 2014. Go to google maps.

[@izquier36-ml9fv]

JWST's initial mission was to send back infrared pictures of earth so we could use them as a comparison finding similar planets with oceans in the future ! which still didn't, it's an open job to the private sector

[@Gwlyddyn]

I had no idea how to make a big ass mirror. Now I do. Thanks for the, for me, totally useless knowledge.

[@GGuy284]

999 subscriber

[@MrSimonw58]

First non reflective mirror I've seen

[@RickSPI2009]

LOL! Yeah, they said at the end of the talk (during the tour) that they don't really make mirrors there. But the name 'Glass Blank Lab' isn't as sexy ...

[@atheistconservative6211]

As a occupational safety guy, I saw a few things here that made me *cringe* Edit: "an" **Hangs head in shame, considers harikiri** haha no, not really.

[@siliconjim2554]

"an" sorry your grammar's making me cringe, hope you understand.

[@atheistconservative6211]

@@siliconjim2554 lmao yes you're absolutely correct and I'm usually a self-proclaimed Grammar Nazi so idk how this slipped past me

[@siliconjim2554]

Happy More Cowbell lol, that's a quick reply. Have a nice evening :-)

[@mari0664]

:p

[@davidbrandenburg8029]

don't you mean seppuku , ritual japanese suicide with a katana?, or what ever they call that shorter version of the katana.

[@nidalshehahadeh7485]

How much did it cost ? is it coincidental that the fixture used to lift the mirror was made out of a six-pointed Occult star the star of Molech ?

[@carlsaganlives4141]

Oh,boy

[@anonymousmc7727]

so I guess you could say they know what the fuck there doing;)

[@fortuner123]

So what happens next? This vid shows only part of a process. A waste of time.

[@robertsimon6674]

what happens next ?? jesus christ what else you want ? its all there in details step by step : spin casting, mold casting, placing it on turn table , test spin , ceramic fiber , surface cleaning and on and on and finally goes to observatory !!! Hahaha

[@matthiaswalker38]

Inches? Really?

[@carlsaganlives4141]

And just a simple gauge like that? No way,I say

[@Penguin_of_Death]

@Matthias Walker Stuck in the 19th century...

[@codymoe4986]

Good grief, even European astronomers refer to the great telescopes in imperial units... P.S. If you lack the intelligence to do the conversion in your heads, I guarantee the smartphone in your pocket, is up to the task...

[@billmea5593]

Why do you mix metric with imperial? After all you are in the United States and we do not use metric anyway

[@Penguin_of_Death]

The US is quite backwards in that respect, though it's not correct to state that the US doesn't use metric - you're likely to find it in use in any cutting edge industries/technologies

[@killroywashere1254]

Put a Giant Magellan Telescope on the MOON.

[@rs2143]

If i had one penney for every hundred spent i could retire .

[@andrewdavis5386]

Why do the technicians need masks and oxygen tanks in the end?

[@Lammergeier350]

Silicon carbide is a incredibly hard molding material, highly resistant to temperature change and capable of withstanding the mass and heat of molten glass. It is also brittle, with a small particle size. This means it is easily aspirated, and the way it breaks makes it very sharp, causing multiple minute lacerations in the mouth, throat, and lung tissue. This condition is known as pneumonoconiosis, where your lungs will simultaneously collapse from air leakage, and fill with blood from the wounds.

[@andrewdavis5386]

@@Lammergeier350 Very informative! Thank you!

[@freefreepalestine360]

Earth is flat and stationary, test the official curvature formula and be smarter 😍If you want to perform globe exorcism at the spinning balls Church aka Griffith Park observatory every other Sunday, from 10 am till the sun disappears into the vanishing point. Next Meetup/ globe exorcism FEBRUARY 9 2020. LET'S UNITE AND DESTROY THE SPINNING BALLS CHURCH 😍

[@anggrimunki]

Wanna know a real trip? This is all done *under* the football stadium.

[@crave2527]

Doing this seven times underneath a football stadium just clearly announce what's really going on down there and what it's capable. There is no way two guys completed this step seven times without any impurities what's in all seven cast, just now way being overseen by a bunch of coffee pots and a few graduates graduates with little to none oversight buy true professionals with in this craft. Make it seem so easy make it seem so easy but I am pretty sure there were many of difficulties. Now try doing the six more times, no way the results are conclusive. A big waste of tax dollars and the hundreds of students refund. Hopefully everything worked out with in the year 2024, have not heard any big Tech names contributing to V-Tech

[@--Valek--]

meanwhile in africa

[@Hackerinsidemyphone_caution]

Arbi ke oont ki Tarah Sar rskhne. Ko jagah do to apne tent se. Bahar. Zyada. Hoshiyari mat. Kar. Dekh kitni gslti hai keyboard. Ka has dekh. Tere jaise ye. Bhi mental ho gaya.

[@davidbrandenburg8029]

isn't it time for personal telescope to step into the 20th century, why are we still doing things the same way for over 200 years

[@jmchez]

Look up "spin casting", "segmented mirrors", "adaptive optics" and "active optics". This not a mid-twentieth century telescope mirror.

[@kauflandlidl3798]

There's nothing that looks like mirror..

[@jimhump3575]

its wqaste of money, because they should of make this on the moon. more better for better images ,plain and simple, of should buit an orbitting telescope in deep space that goes deep into space, that alows the telescope to get beyond view from an earth pion of view

[@RainingArtillery]

it costs $10k/ kilogram put into orbit. That's $10 mil per ton.

[@stevecox3520]

wtf so loud

[@dimassmaster9]

А теперь ,расскажите господа, в какие телескопы смотрели древние звездочёты ? не имея такого технологического процесса изготовления оборудования !

[@ranoonsumer5110]

Boring and slow but exactly like the universe.

[@johnnymitz]

Cool.

[@satanstrilogy2288]

W.O.W.

[@Penguin_of_Death]

@Satan's Trilogy Do you realise that you posted that exact same comment a year ago from your other KZbin account..? 'internet writer'