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 Davis figuring his light weight 12.5 2012-12-02 |
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| Mike Davis figuring his light weight 12.5 inch mirror that he made in his home kiln. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Lenny and his mirror have returned! 2012-11-18 |
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| Lenny Remetta polishing his 14.5 inch mirror with a subdiameter tool. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Nicholas and Donna with their finished mirror 2012-11-11 |
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| Nicholas and Donna with their finished 8 inch better than 1/4 wave mirror. This mirror has a beautiful polish and edge. Thanks for the Mirror Lab buttons Nicholas! |
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Steve Fredlunds wood strip tube 2012-11-03 |
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| Left: Steve, Irv and Ralph check out the 10 inch mirror cell for Steves wood strip tube. Right: Paul cuts the focuser hole on the tube. |
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Paul's 16 inch mirror being polished 2012-08-13 |
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| Paul's 16 inch mirror during the Huckleberry Finn polishing phase. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Donna and Nicholas start polishing their 8 inch mirror 2012-07-29 |
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| Donna and Nicholas prepare to pour their pitch lap (left) and begin polishing their 8 inch mirror (right) |
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Pedro and Giovanni finish their 10" mirror 2012-07-15 |
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| Pedro and Giovanni with their finished f4.5 1/5th wave 10" mirror. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Carlos Paris visitor from Ft. Myers 2012-06-10 |
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| 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). |
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Steve Fredlund 2012-06-10 |
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| Steve Fredlund started his mirror at the lab and finished it better than
1/7th wave last Saturday (6/2). |
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Pedro and Giovanni 2012-06-10 |
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| Pedro and his son, Giovanni are now on the final figuring of their 10" mirror. | |||||||||||||||||||
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