GMT2 8.4m Casting

GMT2 8.4m Mirror Casting Web Index

Latest Oven Temperature Plots (what the oven pilot watches)
Latest Flash Video Images
(We have 6 video cameras looking at the glass inside the furnace.
They take flash images every 10 minutes or so.
The flash images have stopped being updated.)
Before & After Flash Video Images (compare progress)
Latest Infrared Video Images (see the blackbody blue photons at high temperature)
Timelapse Movie of Glass Melting (size 266 MB!)
The movie has stopped being updated. Greg's "Director's Cut" final movies:

Timelapse Movie of Glass Melting - Camera 1 (size 172 MB!)

Timelapse Movie of Glass Melting - Camera 6 (size 152 MB!)

Timelapse Movie of Glass Melting (size 324 MB!)

Approximate schedule of glass melting:

Friday, January 13, 2012
  22:00 MST  Furnace starts turning  (750 C)
  23:00 MST  Furnace rotating at 4.8 RPM (762 C)
Saturday, January 14, 2012
  02:00 MST  Noticeable glass softening (810 C)
  04:30 MST  Glass blocks slumping (850 C)
  07:00 MST  Glass melting        (900 C)
  12:30 MST  Smoothing of glass surface (980 C)
  17:00 MST  Glass clear          (1070 C)
  20:40 MST  Maximum Temeperature (1165 C)
Sunday, January 15, 2012
  00:50 MST  Start cooling        (1165 C)

Steward Observatory Mirror Lab public web page
Giant Magellan Telescope public web page

Time lapse of GMT1 polishing (from Dean Ketelsen)
Video of the furnace spinning during GMT2 casting (from Dean Ketelsen)