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Comment by jamiek88 | Hacker News Reader

mind.blown. now I HAVE to go that observatory. I wonder if they do public tours?

Not this location, but the University of Arizona mirror lab does tours as well starting sometime next year: https://mirrorlab.arizona.edu/content/tours-tickets

They pour somewhat larger mirrors - most recent ones are 8.4 meters (330 inches) for the Giant Magellan Telescope.

They spin their glass while melting it, which generates a parabolic surface that only needs polishing/coating. It's so very rad.

I've known people who did something similar with epoxy and an LP record player, but doing it with molten glass is next-level!

Check out this process: https://tucson.com/news/local/watch-now-ua-lab-casts-mirrors...

There are some other videos shot in the pandemic--it's a bit of good fortune that safety controls against silicosis are also super effective against respiratory pathogens.

These larger mirrors can also be made thinner now because their shape is actively controlled. They don't have to be as stiff as the mirror at Palomar, which was about at the upper limit for such mirrors (anything larger would sag too much retain its optical figure as the mirror was tilted.) Being thinner, these modern mirrors can be cooled more quickly.

Corning's Museum of Glass is a nice stop, too, if you're in the finger lakes area of New York.

More Southern Tier than FLX. But do go a bit north to see the lakes, especially if you like wine or geology.

https://sites.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/visitor/

They used to do campouts for students - it was a 6th grade trip.

Looks like it's closed for Covid for now.

The longer term effects of lost opportunity and science are the most saddening.

It's just been closed for tours and public events. It's not the same, but you can take a virtual tour here: https://sites.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/visitor/virtualtour....

I think when we have people going to basketball games, we can tour science facilities. It’s absurd anyone would be so terrified of covid at this point.

My guess is that it's less about being terrified of COVID and more about wanting to avoid the irrational members of the public (you've seen the videos) who are performatively careless about taking even minimal precautions at best, and an active danger to others at worst.

We don’t call every person at a basketball game “irrational” or “active dangers to others.”

It’s truly time to let covid fears subside and fade away.

I’m much more concerned with irrational people who get angry with someone not wearing a mask than I am that the person not wearing a mask would be a risk to me.

> We don’t call every person at a basketball game “irrational” or “active dangers to others.”

Of course, and thankfully unhinged zealots are a small percentage of potential visitors. Still, my point is that it's hard to blame institutions that aren't mandated to have public access for avoiding the entire issue.

They do tours. I took astronomy at Palomar college.

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