Mirror Making Class
Robo Foucault Tester
Inhouse Aluminizing
Image Gallery
Astronomy Library
Telescope Construction
Our Telescopes
  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.

Google
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.


Lab T-Shirts Available

Lab Graduates

Bruce and his
English Yoke


Irv Nadelhaft


Lenny Remetta


Keevy McAlavy


Paul Krisle


Matt Terry

Telescope Software
Newt
Ray tracing program for determining all required dimensions for a newtonian reflector. (New Website)

Plop
Program for designing mirror cells.

Observing Software
Celestia
3-D interactive simulation of the solar system and beyond.

JupSat95
Plots the jovian satellites.

Lunar Phase
Shows all the phases of the move and more.

Links
tampabayastronomy.com
SPAC news site

Stellafane
The birthplace of amateur astronomy.

Mel Bartels Website
Amateur Astronomer and innovator.

Stardate Website
Good overall observation site.

Southwest Florida
Astronomical Society

A nearby Astronomy club.

The Planet Table
Interactive table of planets and moons.

Public Viewing the Night of October 12th 2002
contributed by KMcAlavy on 2002-10-12

This is the 10 inch rafflescope during collimation
the afternoon before the public observing.

Oct 12, 2002 Pinellas County Science Center Members of the St Petersburg Astronomy Club converge for the first public viewing of the 2002-2003 observing season.

The club's optics lab performed the first star-testing of the just completed 10inch rafflescope.

CLICK HERE for more information about the rafflescope


Paul and Pat admire Ralph's daughter Casey's 6" f 4.5 "Blue Star" scope.

The weather was hot, humid and cloudy (but at least we could see the first quarter moon). About fifty people attended this event with many recently built telescopes shown off by club members.


A 3 inch f6 built by Tom. It looks like a nice scale model of a truss telescope but it actually works.


Tom's other (full size) telescope.

| Leave a Comment
A 10 inch mirror goes from a blank to aluminized in a week!
contributed by KMcAlavy on 2002-09-21
Due to an unfortunate event the 10 inch mirror for the 2003 rafflescope was ruined. James Lerch and Paul Kristle worked around the clock in shifts to regrind and polish a 10 inch mirror from scatch to finish.
| Leave a Comment
Our Vacuum Aluminizing chamber comes online
contributed by KMcAlavy on 2002-09-07
Build from parts scavanged on ebay James Lerch has created a vacuum chamber that will coat (aluminize) mirrors upto 10 inches in diameter. Positioning the heating elements to ensure an even coat was one of the difficult parts.
| Leave a Comment
We snap pictures of asteroid 2002 NY40
contributed by James Lerch on 2002-08-18
Asteroid 2002 NY40 flew past Earth early in the morning on August 17th. It flew by at a distance of 530,000 kilometers or roughly 1.3 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon. NY40 is approximately 800 meters wide and appeared near the bright star Vega. James Lerch took the images.
| Leave a Comment
8 inch Rafflescope winning from OBS 2002
contributed by KMcAlavy on 2002-02-28
| Leave a Comment
Goto Page
 0  1  2  3 

Copyright © 2010 SPAC Inc.