GMT5 8.4m Casting

GMT5 8.4m Mirror Casting Web Index

Latest Oven Temperature Plots
(These plots are what the oven pilot watches. They will continue into early January 2018.)
Latest Flash Video Images
(Click on the individual images for a fullsize version.)
Latest Flash Video Images as a Slideshow
(We have 6 digital video cameras that look at the glass inside the furnace.
They take flash images in blue light for contrast against the blackbody radiation every 6 minutes or so.)
Before & After Flash Video Images
Timelapse Movie of Glass Melting

Revised approximate schedule of glass melting:

Saturday, November 4, 2017
  01:00 MST  Furnace starts turning  (750 C)
  02:00 MST  Furnace rotating at 4.8 RPM (762 C)
  05:00 MST  Noticeable glass softening (810 C)
  07:30 MST  Glass blocks slumping (850 C)
  10:00 MST  Glass melting        (900 C)
  15:30 MST  Smoothing of glass surface (980 C)
  20:00 MST  Glass clear          (1070 C)
  23:40 MST  Maximum Temeperature (1165 C)
Sunday, November 5, 2017
  04:00 MST  Start cooling        (1165 C)

Spinning furnace during GMT5 casting
(20171106 photo by Alessandro Cavallaro)

Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab public web page

Giant Magellan Telescope public web page