Saint Petersburg Astronomy Club - Mirror Lab

Location

We are looking for a new home
As soon as we have the new location set we will post the location and hours here.

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.

04/12/2012 more

Members

  • Ralph Craig - Lab Instructor
  • Allen Maroney - Lab Instructor
  • Ron Jones - The Figurer
  • Mike Davis - Casts Mirrors
  • Dimitri - Support

Friends

  • James Lerch - Robo Foucault
  • Matt Terry
  • Charlie Mullen
  • Bruce Kazcmarik
  • Keevy McAlavy

In Memorium

  • Irv Nadelhaft
  • Lenny Remetta

04/12/2012 more

Welcome

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.

  Paul's 16 inch mirror being polished
2012-08-13
Paul's 16 inch mirror during the Huckleberry Finn polishing phase.

  Donna and Nicholas start polishing their 8 inch mirror
2012-07-29
Donna and Nicholas prepare to pour their pitch lap (left) and begin polishing their 8 inch mirror
(right)

  Pedro and Giovanni finish their 10" mirror
2012-07-15
Pedro and Giovanni with their finished f4.5 1/5th wave 10" mirror.

  Carlos Paris visitor from Ft. Myers
2012-06-10
Carlos Paris was a visitor from the Ft. Myers area and needed help with his 6" mirror. He has
been working alone on it using an impessive home-made Foucault tester and a couple of good books.
Now he was ready to start figuring it. He finished it at the lab better than 1/9th wave during
his first visit (also 6/2).

  Steve Fredlund
2012-06-10
Steve Fredlund started his mirror at the lab and finished it better than 1/7th wave last Saturday
(6/2).

  Pedro and Giovanni
2012-06-10
Pedro and his son, Giovanni are now on the final figuring of their 10" mirror.

  Mike Newton finishes an 8 inch mirror
2012-01-04
Mike Newton with his finished 8 inch f/5.91 one sixth wave mirror on 12-31-2011.

  Dave Pearson and Erin finish a 6 inch mirror
2012-01-04
Dave Pearson and his daughter, Erin, with their finished 6 inch f/4.52 sixth wave mirror on
12-3-2011

  Mike Davis with his finished mirror
2012-01-04
Mike Davis with his finished 10 inch f/4.9 one sixth wave mirror on 12-3-2011

  Paul McNabb fine grinding his 16inch mirror
2012-01-04

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