UA does a lot of interesting things. We took a light rail (new transportation mode — you hoo!) to see two of them. Our first stop was the pharmacy museum. Danita appreciated this because her dad trained as a pharmacist. Dr. Ted Tong was kind enough to give us the tour. UA has what is probably the best pharmacy museum in the world. Here is a pic of them in front of an early machine to help make pharmaceuticals.

We spent the afternoon at the Carris Mirror Lab. This facility makes large mirrors (up to 8.8 meters) with an accuracy of 14 nanometers. This is the only facility in the world that can make one of these mirrors. They are limited to 8.8 meters because the highest overpass out of Tucson has only 10 meters of clearance. This picture shows one of many mirrors that will be used in the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which is currently under construction in the Chilean desert. This mirror is being polished to its final shape. It doesn’t look shiny because the lab provides only the glass for the mirror. The mirror will be coated with aluminum in Chile.

The lab has not yet made a mirror for use in space. The guide told us that a land-based mirror sees as well as a mirror in space, thanks to new technology developed by Cal Tech that removes atmospheric turbulence from the image. He said that if this technology had been available, they would never have launched the Hubble telescope. If ever you visit Tucson, I strongly encourage you to spend a few hours taking this tour.

I hope this finds everyone doing well. And come to Tucson to visit the Carris lab.