Large Binocular Telescope
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LBT # 1 Casting
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Casting History LBT-1:
On September 10, 1997, the Mirror Lab personnel
opened the furnace to reveal a very beautiful looking 8.4-m honeycomb
mirror! This casting was the world's largest optical telescope mirror
blank made from a single piece of glass (a title now held by LBT #2).
Casting of the mirror took place in mid-January 1997. Subsequently, the
mirror underwent an eleven week annealing and cooling process, followed
by inspection early April. After extensive analysis, it was confirmed
that the leakage of glass noted during the casting resulted in some
thinning of the mirror's faceplate. An area amounting to approximately
10% of the total surface of the mirror was of less than optimum
thickness. Apparently the hydrostatic forces from the liquid glass
caused several of the tub wall segments to shift and open the joints to
allow glass leakage. Two tons of glass were added to the mold in late
April and a slow heating process was started. The highest temperature
for flash melting of the new glass occurred on June 10. After a cool
down period of three months, the mirror was ready for inspection again.
This time the news was good: the face plate had been found to be uniform
with an average thickness of 1.65 inches . There were very few small
bubbles, the majority of which will be removed during the generating and
polishing process.
The furnace wall sections and the Inconel bands that encircle the mold
were removed. On February 23, 1998 the mirror was lifted into a vertical
orientation and positioned in the cleaning station where the ceramic
refractory material was removed using high pressure water jets.
By July 24, 1998 all of the mold material had been removed from the
inside of the glass honeycomb. Theh the 8.4-m mirror had to wait a few
months for completion of polishing on the Magellan 6.5-m mirror.
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To get some idea of the size scale of the mirrors we construct, note the optician
in the central hole of the 8.4-m primary mirror for LBT. He is about 6 ft 6 in tall ( ~ 2 m).
The hexagonal (honeycomb) structure of the mirror can be seen through the front surface of the glass.
There are some 1728 cores or columns that go into creating the light weight structure of the mirror. |
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Randy Lutz and John Martin are installing hexagonal cores on the floor of the oven
that become the honeycomb structure within the mirror. The cores are made of alumina silica that
remain rigid while the glass is liquid at temperatures of ~1160 C. Each core is held in place with a
silicon carbide bolt. |
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Site Designed and Maintained by:
Peter Wehinger
Text: Jim Burge, J. M.
Hill, Buddy Martin, and Peter Wehinger
Graphics: Lori Stiles,
Peter Wehinger, John Hill, Ray Bertram, Steve Miller, Evan Richards, J. Peter Van Duyne, and Rod Carender
Last Modified: 11:29:37 AM MST Oct 16 2009
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