Mirror production is underway in Japan for a giant telescope project that’s facing fervent opposition from those who oppose building it atop a Hawaiian mountain.

The nonprofit organization building the Thirty Meter Telescope said in a news release Monday that more than 100 of the 574 segmented mirror blanks needed for the telescope’s primary mirror have been produced.

TMT International Observatory Governing Board Vice-Chair Masanori Iye of Japan says his country is proud to be part of the building effort.

Meanwhile in Hawaii, construction near the summit of the Big Island’s Mauna Kea has been stalled amid protests by those who don’t want another telescope on a mountain many Native Hawaiians consider sacred. Telescope officials haven’t indicated when there will be another attempt to resume construction at the site.