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Where the 19th Century Art of Mirror Making Meets the 21st Century
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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 Newton finishes an 8 inch mirror
contributed by KMcAlavy on 2012-01-04
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Mike Newton with his finished 8 inch f/5.91 one sixth wave mirror on 12-31-2011. |
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Dave Pearson and Erin finish a 6 inch mirror
contributed by KMcAlavy on 2012-01-04
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Dave Pearson and his daughter, Erin, with their finished 6 inch f/4.52 sixth wave mirror on 12-3-2011 |
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Mike Davis with his finished mirror
contributed by KMcAlavy on 2012-01-04
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Mike Davis with his finished 10 inch f/4.9 one sixth wave mirror on 12-3-2011 |
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Paul McNabb fine grinding his 16inch mirror
contributed by KMcAlavy on 2012-01-04
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Two Mikes
contributed by KMcAlavy on 2011-08-15
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Mike Davis (Left) and Mike Newton polishing their mirrors |
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Mike, Mike and Dave
contributed by KMcAlavy on 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
contributed by KMcAlavy on 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
contributed by KMcAlavy on 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
contributed by KMcAlavy on 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
contributed by KMcAlavy on 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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