Mirrors, missiles, mission, planes and a peak...

… describes our week in Tucson.

Earlier this week we visited the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory Mirror Lab and learnt all about the HUGE lightweight mirrors that are being cast for the biggest optical telescopes in the world. If you’d like to know more about the process, below is the link to their site:

http://mirrorlab.as.arizona.edu/about

At the moment, they are working on 7 x 8.4m diameter mirrors for the new Giant Magellan Telescope due to be built in Chile (the Hubble is only 1 x 2.4m in diameter!). About 40,000 pounds of glass are placed into the mould, by hand. The finished mirror weighs approximately 20 tons and we saw the second mirror that was in the process of being polished:

The polishing table

 The polisher

And the third mirror that had come out of the furnace 

 and was cooling down

The next day we visited the Titan Missile museum. This preserved Titan II missile site is all that remains of the 54 Titan II missile sites that were on alert across the United States from 1963 to 1987. Able to launch from its underground silo in just 58 seconds, the Titan II was capable of delivering a 9-megaton nuclear warhead to targets more than 6300 miles (10,000 km) away in about 30 minutes.  On the tour, we stood on top of the launch duct and saw the Titan II missile in the launch duct and the perimeter radar motion sensors.

We then went down 35 feet into the underground missile complex and visited the launch control centre where the guide simulated launching the missile.

Then we walked across to level 2 of the missile silo where we saw the missile in the launch duct.

Below is a plan of the underground site that we walked around

On Tuesday we visited the Mission San Xavier del Bac which was founded in 1692 by Fr Eusebio Francisco Kino, a Jesuit pioneer and explorer.

Today’s Franciscan church was built between 1783 and 1797 with 7,000 pesos borrowed from a local rancher. The local villagers helped and artists from New Spain (Mexico) completed the interior. Because the Apaches were a constant threat, all workers earned double pay! As with most Spanish Colonial architecture, the inside of the church is anything but subtle:

Wednesday saw us at the Pima Air and Space Museum. It holds the world’s smallest aircraft called the Bumble Bee:

And Mark’s favourite plane, the Blackbird (SR-71)

As well as walking around more than 300 aircraft both inside and out, we went on the “Boneyard” tour aka Aerospace Maintenance Regeneration Group. This is where planes are either in storage or will be broken up and used as spares at a later date and it covered an enormous area (I've included an areal shot from their website to give you an idea of the sheer size:.

Yesterday we went up to Kitt Peak National Observatory, high above the Sonoran Desert. The site was selected in 1957 after a three year survey of more than 150 sites and is now home to the largest collection of astronomical telescopes in the world – 25 optical and 2 radio telescopes.

We toured the world’s largest solar telescope, the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope and saw sun spots and solar flares through the Meade Solar Telescope Array

Saw the 2.1m telescope:

And then the 4m Mayall telescope:

We started the week with mirrors and ended with telescopes, so it tied it altogether quite nicely. In fact when we were in the visitors centre, Mark was talking to one of the tour guides and was asked if he was a scientist! No, he just has a lot of info stored in his brain J

Tomorrow sees us leaving Tucson and heading to the Kartchner Caverns and Tombstone before heading east to New Mexico and continuing our adventure.