University of Arizona's Steward Observatory Richard F. Caris Mirror Laboratory

Out of this world! Offered daily, the 90-minute tour of the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab begins at Steward Observatory, where two university hosts meet the group (12 people in ours) and begin with a quick introductory talk and video session, to describe what you’ll see in the lab. Our outstanding guides, Adrian and Sage, were friendly, informative, and engaged, encouraging questions and offering interesting insights about the telescope-mirror production process as well as the U of A’s astronomy program as a whole. Next, it’s a short walk to the lab, housed within the infrastructure of the football stadium. From various catwalk vantages, visitors can photograph the rotating furnace apparatus used to melt the Ohara E-6 borosilicate glass and also view the extensive grinding, cleaning, and polishing processes. The lab is currently in charge of fabricating the seven 8.4-meter spin-cast mirrors that will form the heart of the Giant Magellan Telescope, which will have capabilities up to 200x more powerful than today’s best land-based telescopes and is expected to take images 10x sharper than Hubble. It’s amazing to hear about the innovation involved in this project that spans decades, and it’s even more dazzling and inspiring to see it in person — a stellar opportunity that will leave you starry-eyed!

What a privilege it is to visit these facilities and see first hand how mankind can unravel the mysteries of the universe. If you’re a builder in any genre this tour will interest and inspire you. Amazing to see how a this facility was started and how they are now spearheading modern astronomy. Definitely recommend this tour! Special thanks to our knowledgeable and personable tour guide, Sage!!

A truly wonderful and fascinating experience. We live in Scottsdale and had no idea such a world class facility was so close to visit in Tucson. They are building the mirrors for the largest telescope in the world, GMT, the Giant Magellan Telescope. Our docent, Ella, was able to explain the construction process in lay terms and patiently answered our questions.

We thoroughly enjoyed the Mirror Lab tour with Sage and Andrew. They were engaging and incredibly informative, and encouraged questions. I highly recommend this tour to anyone visiting Tucson. The shear size of the mirrors being produced is difficult to grasp until you see the process provided in the lab tour! Thank you Sage and Andrew!

My family (of non-sciencey people) greatly enjoyed this fascinating tour. If our guide, Andrew, had not told us it was his first time giving the whole tour, we would have never known. He was so informative and enthusiastic that we were fully engaged and learned a lot about astrophysics. I am grateful that I heard about this from another UofA parent. I highly recommend the Mirror Lab tour.

Amazing, great tour! Our guides Will & Ellie were captivating and very informative! Suggest arriving at least 20 mins early and park at the Cherry Parking Garage. Highly recommend for school age children and older. Mind blowing!

The Mirror Lab tour is fascinating, eye opening and eye popping! The two undergraduates, Andrew and Sage, who led our tour are incredibly knowlegeable and excellent speakers--there wasn't a question they couldn't answer, and they managed to make the science of building mirrors for the world's largest telescope (the Giant Magellan Telescope being constructed in Chile) both accessible and entertaining. I highly recommend the tour to everyone!

Enjoyed the mirror lab tour on Friday, Oct 17th. It was fascinating and the guides for our tour - Will, Andrew and Adriane were great - friendly, articulate, professional, and extremely knowledgeable. Highly recommend this tour! Makes you so proud of the University of Arizona.