Our 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.
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.
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Mike polishing towards a sphere 2013-08-25 |
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| Mike is helping out during the polishing phase of his son's 8 inch mirror. There was a 500nm hill in the middle that he was cleaning up. By the end of the day the shape was a nice sphere and the laser test said that middle was polished. Once the polish works its way to the edge Scott will start figuring. (Photo by Scott) |
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Lenny Remetta is visiting the heavens 2013-08-05 |
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| Our friend, fellow astronomer, bike rider, photographer and mirror lab rat, Lenny Remetta, passed away in mid July 2013. We miss you Lenny and we'll be thinking of you every time we look up! |
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Lab staff 18th wave mirror 2013-08-05 |
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| The mirror lab staff occasionally makes a mirror in our spare time. This 10" mirror, with final figuring by Ralph Craig, finished with a beautiful 18th wave figure. Okay, the other axis was only 16th wave. |
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Glass Stress - X marks the spot 2013-08-05 |
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| The black background is actually a white LCD screen with a polarizing filter blocking its linearly polarized light. If the glass (tool here) had no stress it too would be black. The stress in the glass bends the light and allows it to pass through the filter. This glass will be annealed and later made into a mirror. |
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Scott begins his mirror 2013-07-06 |
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| Scott begins hogging out his 8" mirror. According to the sagitta meter (the bar and gauge on the mirror) he reached about half of the needed depth during the first lab session. |
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Brittany finished her 10 inch mirror 2013-06-15 |
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| Brittany finished her 10 inch f4.9 1/6th wave mirror today. It has a fantastic polish and edge. Congratulations! |
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Brittany and her dad polish mirrors 2013-06-02 |
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| Brittany and her father, Stan, were working on 10 inch mirrors this week. Brittany's f4.9 mirror is fully polished and ready for figuring. Stan was visiting the lab for the first time and we put him to work in a 10 inch f5 mirror that will be used to calibrate the robotic Foucault tester. |
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EXTRA! EXTRA! Paul McNabb Finishes a mirror! 2013-04-20 |
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| The impossible has finally happened, Paul McNabb has finished a mirror. His 16 inch better than 1/4 wave f/4.76 mirror was finished on 4/20/2013, which also happens to be his birthday. Congratulations and happy birthday Paul! |
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The last round of figuring on Pauls 16 in 2013-04-20 |
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| Dennis Farr (with Pebbles), Paul McNabb and Ron Jones discuss the best stroke to finish Pauls mirror. They were successful! |
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Bill with his 10 inch mirror 2013-04-06 |
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| Bill is at 35 thousandths after his first day of edge beveling and grinding with 60 grit. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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