Coating Plant Assembly on Summit

A crew from Von Ardenne, the LSST Coating Chamber vendor, is currently onsite at the LSST summit facility building, performing work on the Coating Chamber, which arrived at the summit in November 2018. According to Tomislav Vucina, LSST Coatings Engineer, "The LSST Coating Chamber will be the largest, most modern, and most powerful mirror coating mechanism used by any telescope in the world." The Coating Chamber, which was constructed in Germany, is now beginning a six-month program of “assembly, integration, and commissioning,” which refers to installation of all components of the Coating Plant, and the testing necessary to ensure that everything works the way it’s supposed to. After final acceptance, and after both LSST mirrors arrive, the Coating Plant will be used to coat the Primary/Tertiary Mirror (M1M3) with aluminum, and the Secondary Mirror (M2) with silver.