Not even our mirrors stay clean forever! 🧽 Optical engineer Jaime González is checking for large particles on a VLT mirror. This step is part of a periodic cleaning process that keeps the mirrors ultra-precise & super-reflective. Find out how this is done:
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A perfect mirror image
A perfect mirror image
 And for a deeper dive:
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ESOblog: Exploding snow and giant puzzles Cleaning the world's biggest telescope mirrors
Exploding snow and giant puzzles
 📷 ESO/N. Schafer #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science #engineering #technology image
A rising telescope under a rising Sun and Moon! This montage offers a kaleidoscope of moments from the construction of our Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), each one perfectly framed by the #Sun and #Moon behind it. Creating this collage was no small feat: it took Boris Häußler, an ESO astronomer in #Chile, years of meticulous planning to time each frame almost down to the exact second. Discover why:
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A kaleidoscopic view of the ELT
A kaleidoscopic view of the ELT
 📷 B. Häußler/ESO #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science image