The aluminizing vacuum chamber and the cleaning unit for the maintenance of JST250 and JAST80 telescope's mirrors arrived yesterday at the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre (OAJ). The chamber has been designed by CEFCA and Vacuum Technology Associates Inc, DYNAVAC (Boston, United States), responsible for its manufacture.

This equipment is fundamental in order to clean the surface of the mirrors from the residuals accumulated with time and to renovate regularly the thin layer of aluminium that covers them, maximizing the mirrors' reflectivity that is necessary for obtaining the scientific data.

After the acceptance of the design was done, the manufacture process has taken one year. The final acceptance tests at the factory were carried out last March. Afterwards, the aluminizing vacuum chamber was shipped from the US to the port of Valencia and transported up to the OAJ in different trucks due, to the big volume of the equipment.

Several technicians from DYNAVAC came for the receipt at OAJ and will stay for a month in order to carry out the assembly, integration and operation tests of the equipment after the trip. Then, the engineers of CEFCA will finish the fine-tuning of the clean room where the aluminizing vacuum chamber is placed in order to put the room into regular operation.