Founder Paul McNabb
founded the mirror lab in 1997 in order to
create the best amateur telecopes possible. Inch for inch our
mirrors surpass store bought or commercial grade scopes.
Lab Members
Allen Maroney has completed
three mirrors in the lab between 8 and 18 inches.
Allen is also buiding a second robo foucault
tester based on James design.
Ralph Craig
is a lab instructor and has
made mirrors from 6 inches to his
recently completed 16 inch f5 mirror.
Charlie Mullen ground
the mirrors for two years worth of
rafflescopes but now has moved on
the clear skys of New Mexico.
James Lerch
built our robo foucault tester and
in house aluminizing chamber as well as a laser
interferometry testing setup.
Ron Jones AKA the
figurer is about the best mirror maker
this side of the mississippi. You can
see things in his 8 inch mirror that
would impress a takahashi devotee.
Where the 19th Century Art of Mirror Making Meets the 21st Century
The Saint Petersburg Mirror Lab is a small band of dedicated mirror grinders
and telescope makers living in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. We offer a
mirror making class for interested persons.
We strive to create the best mirrors our home brew technology can muster.
This includes robotic foucault testing and laser interferometry.
Ralph Craig and his 16inch f/5 Dob at the 2010 Orange Blossom Special (OBS) Star Party on 2-10-2010. This was first light for this telescope, which was completed about a day before the star party began. Ralph made the 16" mirror for this telescope at the OBS Optical Lab.
Allen Maroney and his 18inch f/4.89 dob during first light on 2-6-2010. Allen made the 18" mirror for this telescope at the SPAC Optical Lab.
We haven't gone anywhere- just working on mirrors and haven't had time to post anything new to the website.
Allen made an
updated image page from the last few months for your enjoyment.
From James Lerch...
There is a new place to get coatings:
Optical Mechanics They charge $10/inch with complete overcoatings. Very professional and quick turnaround time. If you don't mind going without the overcoating James will still aluminize your mirror for $5/inch but he now recommends Optical Mechanics.
From Ralph:
We just had two more mirrors finished. Herb Conner 10" f/6 Pete S 8" f/4.5 for club scope
Joe is starting work on his second mirror using a fused quartz 14 inch blank. Here is a picture of his first telescope made at the lab. It's a 10 inch f/6.
Recolabs has around 100 fused quartz mirror blanks for sale. 12.5 inch .8 thick goes for $160 and a 14 inch .8 thick for $200. These are available through ebay.
From one of their auction pages:
"The thermal properties of quartz are 2 times better than Pyrex, it holds a better surface and it is stronger than Pyrex."
Contact Chris at recolabs for more information ctribe@recolabs.com or call 503-661-1163
FYI,
Eric finished his mirror today. It tested 1/6th wave or better on all
axes tested. This frees up a table if anyone wanted to work on a
mirror????
RC
The Mirror Lab website has been updated. There are still lots of things to be done with the website but the majority of pages have been updated. We've added a new feature a sagitta to focal length calculator.
