Bullets and mirrors dont mix

well, I thought I'd seen it all until I read this
It's amazing the mirror survived !
www.astr.ua.edu/keel/telescopes/mcdonald.html

Crikey! I never though any kind of melted/fused glass could survive punishment like that!

Seanie.

Only in America

I visited the Archenhold observatory in Berlin a few years back. The refractor there is about 21 metres long (worlds longest scope), looks like a "big bertha" gun and of course was consequently shot to bits towards the end of the war. You can still see the bullet marks in the scope. It still works fine. They just blacked out the bullet holes on the lens.