Vera C. Rubin Observatory Final Coating Results over the Main Telescope Mirrors
December 11, 2024 12:00 am
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory construction is poised to be completed, finishing the Integration phase and starting the Commissioning phase. The Coating Plant is delivering the coated main science mirrors to the project. The M2 mirror was coated with protected Silver in 2019 and the M1M3 mirror coated in 2024 with protected Silver as well, both coatings achieving the main project requirements. This paper describes the main project milestones in terms of construction, assembly and integration, the coating results on both mirrors. This paper also describes a characterization of the Coating Plant and its ancillary equipment, a characterization of the coating delivered by us, the coating tests that we made prior of the final coating recipe decision, and the final coating results over the main telescope mirrors, finishing with the future projects related to this Coating System.