A silver coating newly applied to the 8-metre mirror of the Gemini South telescope is set to make it the most powerful infrared telescope on the Earth, allowing UK astronomers and their international ...

Kobayashi and Phillips showed their new ALD system to Claire Max, director of UC Observatories. David Fryauf, Nobuhiko Kobayashi, Michael Bolte, Andrew Phillips, and Claire Max (l to r), with the new ...

According to Phillips, most astronomical telescope mirrors use aluminum for the reflective layer, despite the superior reflective properties of silver. “Silver is the most reflective material, but it ...

A primary mirror segment of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has completed the final step in the manufacturing process. It is the first of the telescope’s primary mirror segments to achieve this ...

The first mirrors for the European Southern Observatory's Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) arrived at the scope’s future home in Chile just in time for Christmas, but the unboxing process is going to ...

September 10, 2015 — Acton, MA — Acton Optics & Coatings is pleased to introduce two new broadband coatings that provide UV reflectivity while maintaining high reflectance up to the mid-IR wavelength ...

The next generation of large scale telescopes will need durable mirrors that are highly reflective, uniform and have substrate diameters in excess of 8 meters. Traditionally, evaporative coatings have ...

To study the heavens, it's all about the photons. "We in astronomy are always greedy. We want every photon we can collect." Drew Phillips, astronomer at University of California Observatories. More ...

Materials scientist Nobuhiko Kobayashi wasn't quite sure why the astronomer he met at a wine-tasting several years ago was so interested in his research, but as he learned more about telescope mirrors ...

To investors looking for the next sure thing, the silver coating on the Gemini South 8-meter telescope mirror might seem like an insider’s secret tip-off to invest in this valuable metal for a huge ...

An electrical engineer has teamed up with astronomers to improve telescope mirrors using thin-film technology from the electronics industry. They are developing new protective coatings using an atomic ...