University of Arizona

Thursday was spent at the University campus. First we
attended a lecture by Don McCarthy, an excellent science communicator as the
entire lecture was very interactive and had plenty of practical examples. After
the lecture, we met Jim Scotti at the Lunar Planetary Lab and visited the Space
Imagery Center where we were able to look at photographs from all of the Apollo
missions along with images from Magellan and Gemini amongst others. We were
able to wander freely around the centre and access all of the planetary atlases
and photobooks. After a break for lunch we visited the Steward Mirror Lab where
we were able to see the final stage of the mirror for the LSST, which should be
shipped to its location in the coming weeks. There were also two mirrors in
progress that are to be part of the Giant Magellan Telescope, a 7-mirror scope,
where each mirror is 8.4m in diameter, giving a total collecting area of
24.5m,which will make it the largest optical telescope in the world. The
mirrors made in the SML have a maximum diameter of 8.4m due to the unique way
in which they are created. The use a spin technique as they melt the glass to
give the surface a parabolic shape, which requires much less grinding and
polishing to be done after casting. The Oven Pilot is responsible for ensuring
that the furnace rotates at the correct speed and temperature. The glass used
is shipped from Japan by a Japanese company called Ohara in large chunks that
are inspected for impurities before becoming part of the mirror. The final
visit was to the HiRISE building, were we were shown around by several members
of the team and given a variety of images from the project to take back with
us. The team at HiRISE were so welcoming; they printed special images for our
visit with Welsh captions at the bottom as they knew we were visiting from
Wales, It really was one of the highlights of the trip.