Palomar Observatory Mirror Wash

The 200-inch mirror in the telescope needs to be washed....Look at the difference from before and after.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Telescope
• time
• lapse
• clean
• mirror
• observatory
• san
• diego
• palomar
• caltech
• california
• institue
• of
• techonology

[pervreaper]

I believe all they have done in this clip is remove the old coating from the mirror, the honeycomb effect you see at the end is the pattern in the backside of the pyrex glass casting 'blank' where glass is left out to reduce the weight from around 40 tons to 20 tons. Once the old coating is completely removed, it is then ready to be recoated with aluminium (using vacuum deposition) so it becomes a mirror again.

[rockerseven]

@catsrool5 its a test...he must stay there for 3 days without any food, shelter, or encouragement...and should he pass, then he will finally be able to point the telescope at uranus

:D

[1ownjoo2]

Im guessing he got out and back in front that platform that kept showing up in parts of the pictures

[catsrool5]

that was so cool 5 star for fastfwd clening :) and also how did that guy get out of the middle of that mirrior is he still ther