Hi Alex,

Yes, the towels (lint-free) are tossed onto the mirror at random to soak
up the water. The amount of distilled water needed is enormous so
there's a lot of splashing that goes on first! And I have seen objects
that didn't look too different than janitorial supplies used on big
mirrors at Mt. Wilson. :-)

Mike Simmons

Alexander Avtanski wrote:

Mike Simmons wrote:

Alexander Avtanski wrote:

Those guys are using - what? - paper towels to clean the mirror?!

I didn't see them but they're undoubtedly large laboratory wipes that
are safe for the glass, of course. I think they just finished up the
final wash and rinse and are getting ready to put it in the chamber but
I'm not certain of that.

A few minutes before this the camera got a picture in the exact moment
when a guy was splashing a huge amount of water on the surface. The
next thing was the "towels" that looked like thrown randomly all over
the surface. After those two things I almost expected to see a janitor
with a mop and bucket, :-)

A friend from Palomar that's visiting just clued me in and I was
surprised it hadn't been advertised more. I'm keeping it on the screen
so I can watch while I work.

I'm doing the same. Really interesting and fun to watch too.

- Alex