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WIYN on the Fast Track (1Jun92)
(from KPNO, NOAO Newsletter No. 30, 1 June 1992)

This last quarter has seen remarkable progress on the construction of
the WIYN telescope. Ground-breaking ceremonies for the observatory were
held on 14 March on Kitt Peak.  Representatives from all four of the
WIYN institutions were present to turn shovels of dirt, and
congratulatory letters from Senators Dennis DeConcini and John McCain
and Representatives Jim Kolbe and Ed Pastor were read. The weather was
perfect, the speeches were short, and a good time was had by all.  The
ground-breaking ceremony was followed by a picnic in the Picnic Grounds
featuring some of Tucson's best Mexican food and a spectacular cake
baked in our own KPNO kitchen. All in all, a fine kick-off for the
construction phase of the project. NOAO's official shovel now resides
in Caty's office--stop by to see it and the pictures of the
ground-breaking when you come to Tucson.

Those of you who have visited the mountain in the last two months have
no doubt noticed the pace of construction activity. At the time of
writing this article (late April) site preparation work (aka blasting!)
is complete, and work needed in order to pour the foundations is
underway. We expect completion of the observatory and control building
by January 1993.

The telescope itself is being fabricated at L&F Industries in
California. The basic weldments for the pedestal and the cone are
essentially complete, and the azimuth disk is well underway. The base
of the fork weldment is in fabrication.  The telescope should be
delivered to the site in March 1993.

The optical fabrication is also proceeding. Testing of the primary
mirror, now polished to a sphere, will soon be completed, and the
mirror will be removed from its active supports in preparation for
repolishing it to the proper asphere for the WIYN telescope (see the
following article for more details). We expect delivery of the primary
mirror to the telescope in early 1994. The secondary mirror is being
fabricated. A request for proposal to polish the secondary has gone
out, and bids will be reviewed soon.

Matt Johns, Caty Pilachowski

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