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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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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Early 2008 Lab Update 2008-04-30 |
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| We haven't gone anywhere- just working on mirrors and haven't had time to post anything new to the website.
Allen made an
From James Lerch...
From Ralph: |
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Recent Mirror Completions 2007-11-17 |
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| September: Julio Fernandez completed a 10inch f/5.84
October: |
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Another Mirror Completed 2007-05-17 |
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| Jim Hunter finished his 12.5" mirror last weekend. I think it is a little under
f/6. Came in at 1/8 wave. RC |
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Joe starts work on his second mirror 2007-04-29 |
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| 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. |
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Fused Quartz Mirror Blanks for Sale 2007-04-23 |
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| 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
Contact Chris at recolabs for more information |
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Eric Finishes his second mirror a 12.5 inch 2007-04-02 |
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| 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 |
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Mirror Lab Video for Charlie 2007-03-31 |
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| Here is 17 minute video of how Robo Foucault works. Allen and Ralph describe how to test a mirror. Watch it in Internet Explorer (wmv) or |
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Website Update 2007-02-25 |
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| 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 |
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