Also called: Mirror Aluminizing Technician, Observatory Optics Technician
Strips and re-coats giant telescope mirrors with a layer of aluminum or silver far thinner than a soap bubble so they stay sharp.
Every year or two the crew uses a crane to lift a multi-ton mirror out of the telescope and lower it onto a cart. You wash off the old, dusty coating with chemicals, rinse it spotless, and roll it into a huge vacuum chamber where aluminum is boiled onto the glass. Then you test how much light it reflects and help put it back before night falls.
Observatory technician pay; many jobs are on remote mountaintops.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Associate's degree (2-year), about 2 years after high school. Associate degree in optics, electronics or engineering technology, or on-the-job training at an observatory.
Ways in: 2-year college, On-the-job training. Training cost: Under $15k.
Majors to look at: Optics Technology, Engineering Technology, Physics.
Growing about average. Only a few dozen people in the US do this; openings come up rarely.
Low risk for 10 years. Software runs the vacuum chamber, but lifting, cleaning and inspecting a priceless mirror stay careful human work.
Classes: Physics, Chemistry, Shop or engineering class.
Official data: O*NET occupation 17-3029.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.