Saint Petersburg Astronomy Club - Mirror Lab

Location

We are looking for a new home
As soon as we have the new location set we will post the location and hours here.

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.

04/12/2012 more

Members

  • Ralph Craig - Lab Instructor
  • Allen Maroney - Lab Instructor
  • Ron Jones - The Figurer
  • Mike Davis - Casts Mirrors
  • Dimitri - Support

Friends

  • James Lerch - Robo Foucault
  • Matt Terry
  • Charlie Mullen
  • Bruce Kazcmarik
  • Keevy McAlavy

In Memorium

  • Irv Nadelhaft
  • Lenny Remetta

04/12/2012 more

Welcome

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.

  Mike Newton finishes an 8 inch mirror
2012-01-04
Mike Newton with his finished 8 inch f/5.91 one sixth wave mirror on 12-31-2011.

  Dave Pearson and Erin finish a 6 inch mirror
2012-01-04
Dave Pearson and his daughter, Erin, with their finished 6 inch f/4.52 sixth wave mirror on
12-3-2011

  Mike Davis with his finished mirror
2012-01-04
Mike Davis with his finished 10 inch f/4.9 one sixth wave mirror on 12-3-2011

  Paul McNabb fine grinding his 16inch mirror
2012-01-04

  Two Mikes
2011-08-15
Mike Davis (Left) and Mike Newton polishing their mirrors

  Mike, Mike and Dave
2011-08-15
Mike, Mike and Dave polishing mirrors with Irv, Allen and Ralph (taking photo) supervising the
process

  Mirror Lab helps local science teacher
2011-03-24
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.

  Pauls new Dob
2011-02-02
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.

  Tom Greens f/4.9 Mirror
2011-01-15
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".

  Bobs Mirror
2010-12-06
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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