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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Rough mirror made smooth 2019-03-17 |
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| Steve Maiaroto brought in an 8 inch piece of glass that he polished and figured years ago. We put it on the Foucault machine to measured the surface and it came out to sixth wave, which is better than our minimum requirement of quarter wave. Unfortunately, we detected a polishing issue that needed addressing. Periodic marks were rubbed into the glass as seen in image A, which can contribute to scattering and distortion. The most likely causes for this issue are aggressive rubbing, lack of randomness or a hard pitch lap. We poured a new pitch lap and decide on the best stroke to work out the pattern without affecting the shape. It took about 2.5 hours of rubbing to get the results you see in image B. |
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Grinders in the Shade 2019-03-17 |
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| Brad, Richard and Mike(l to r) grinding and Paul in the background prepping a tube for black paint. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Paul Pouring Hydrostone 2019-03-17 |
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| Paul is creating the base for a polishing tool for Richard's BVC mirror. We expect that the BVC will move to polishing in the next week or two. |
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Richard's BVC Mirror 2019-03-17 |
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| Richard, Brad and Ralph inspecting Richard's BVC mirror. It needed a little work getting the curve all the way out to the edge which was resolved the following week. |
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Soldering and Grinding 2019-03-17 |
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| Steve and Paul (l to r foreground) are soldering a dew heater controller. Brad and Ron are working on Brad's 14 inch mirror. |
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Bill and Ralph Cut A Tube 2019-03-09 |
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| Bill (left) and Ralph cut a 12 foot long 12 inch tube to a more appropriate length for Bill's 10 inch f/5 mirror. |
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Brad's Finished Telescope at the OBS 2019-02-16 |
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| Brad finished remaking his telescope in time for the 2019 Orange Blossom Special (OBS) Star Party | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Mike's Mirror Grinding Demo 2019-02-16 |
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| Mike shared his mirror grinding skills during a demo at the 2019 Orange Blossom Special Star Party. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Ralph's 12 inch Dob at the OBS Telescope Walkabout 2019-02-16 |
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| Ralph finished his 12 inch Dob just before the OBS star party. Here he is explaining its construction during the telescope walkabout. |
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Dew Heater Controllers 2019-01-14 |
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| Mike (left) and Dave (right) are building a couple of dew heater controllers. Brad (center) already built one and is assisting the projects. |
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