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, Mike and Dave 2011-08-15 |
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| Mike, Mike and Dave polishing mirrors with Irv, Allen and
Ralph (taking photo) supervising the process |
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Mirror Lab helps local science teacher 2011-03-24 |
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| This 16 inch Meade Dob was donated to the local school system. George
Fatolitus, center, is the science teacher that will be using it with his students. He brought it to the Optical Lab where we cleaned the optics, fixed some mechanical issues with the primary cell and base and then collimated it. That's Paul McNabb at the eyepiece and Ralph Craig, right. Next Jim Hunter, who recently finished a 16" mirror (see photo further down this page), will show Mr. Fatolitus how to field collimate and use the scope. |
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Pauls new Dob 2011-02-02 |
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| Paul McNabb with a new Dob telescope base that he made for a 10" scope.
The optical tube is being assembled and it should be ready for observing at the Orange Blossom Special in early March 2011. |
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Tom Greens f/4.9 Mirror 2011-01-15 |
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| Tom Green on the first day of polishing his 12.5" f/4.92 mirror. We
were able to get an accurate Foucault focal length of 61". After taking in to account the 1/8" bevel the mirror has a surface diameter of 12.325". |
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Bobs Mirror 2010-12-06 |
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| This is the final and 49th test of Bob's mirror from the Robotic
Foucault Tester. The 65nm (nanometer) mark represents a 1/4 wave mirror (peak to valley) of green/yellow light's wavelength, which is considered good enough for a commercial mirror. Bob's mirror, at 13th wave, is more than three times better than that. |
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New Mirror Completed 2010-12-06 |
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| Bob Helmling with his 10" f/5.9 mirror finished on December 4th, 2010.
This is an amazing 13th wave mirror with a good edge and a smooth, well polished surface. |
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New Mirror Completed 2010-11-21 |
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| Dave Pearson with his newly finished 1/6th wave 10" mirror on 11-20-2010. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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New Mirror Completed 2010-09-26 |
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| Jim Hunter finished his extremely well polished one sixth wave 16" f/4.4 mirror on September 25th, 2010. |
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New 16 and 18 inchers Debut at OBS 2010 2010-02-21 |
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| 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. |
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We're still Here. Photos for 2009 2009-04-12 |
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| Lynn, Irv and Allen are all finishing up telescope projects. pictures. |
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