Hobby-Eberly Telescope Mirror Swap and Cleaning Process

See how McDonald Observatory staff keep the reflective surface of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope's mirror pristine – one of the core challenges of the telescope’s daily operations. One of the five largest telescopes in the world, the Hobby-Eberly boasts a 10-meter primary mirror that’s formed by 91 individual, hexagonally shaped segments.

The mirror swap and cleaning process was captured by Paul Stekler while filming THE STARS IN THEIR EYES. The documentary, currently in production, captures about a year at McDonald Observatory. Stekler is the former chair of UT’s Department of Radio-Television-Film where he also ran their highly ranked film production program for many years.

[barryallen]

Incredible! Way more difficult than my cleaning process on my 12 inch Dob mirror.

[ExtremePacifist]

earth, while rotating around the sun, also is spinning on invisible magnetic energy fields, from west to east, at 1, 000 mph, at the equator, and o at the north and south poles, and, our collective solar system; sun, and planets and moons, are flying through infinite space at 550, 000 mph, and our galaxy is moving through space at 2, 237, 000 mph.
How can we view stars millions of miles away stuck in our night sky for centuries?
Do all stars fly through space along side with our solar system and galaxy?