UA News

A tour of the Mirror Lab on The University of Arizona campus offers a unique opportunity to experience the ground-breaking work being done at our facility located under the UA football stadium. This tour will provide visitors with a behind-the-scenes look at cutting-edge optical technology and the revolutionary spin-casting processes involved in making giant telescope mirrors. Starting with the construction of the mold, to spin-casting, to grinding and polishing, the final result is a lightweight mirror ready for transportation to a mountaintop observatory where it will peer into remote regions of the cosmos, exploring the edges of the universe in an effort to answer a vast array of astronomical questions and make new discoveries.

Steward Observatory at The University of Arizona is the only place in the world where giant spin-cast telescope mirrors are produced … we look forward to showing you how this is done and how we are changing the way astronomers and telescopes explore the universe today and in the future.