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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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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Ralphs' Secondary holder 2019-01-14 |
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| Ralph built in some resistors for dew control on his secondary holder. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Mike's slumped 16 2019-01-14 |
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| Mile slumped a 16 inch blank and brought it to the lab the same day that it came out of the kiln. This is a beautiful piece of glass just under an inch thick. |
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Allen's 16 inch Mini Maxx telecope 2019-01-14 |
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| The 16 inch Mini Maxx f/4.66 telescope had first light on January 7th. It's similar in design to the 18 inch Maxx scope but considerably lighter. |
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Brad's Copper Clad Telescope 2018-12-14 |
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| Brad covered his telescope with a thin layer of copper sheeting. Now he is using some copper strip to cover the seams. Here he is starting with the with the seam that goes the length of the telescope. That will be followed with strips covering the seams that wrap around the circumference of the telescope. |
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Dave Grinding 12.5 Inch Mirror 2018-11-25 |
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| Dave grinds his 12.5" mirror while Paul (left) and Bill offer their opinion of his technique. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Glass Floor Tile Becomes 8 Inch Mirror Blank 2018-11-10 |
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| Mike bought a case of clear glass floor tiles and he used his kiln to make a test 8 inch mirror blank out of one. |
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Brad refinishing his telescope 2018-11-10 |
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| Brad is smoothing his altitude bearings before refinishing them. His scope should be well tuned before the Orange Blossom Special (OBS) Star Party in January 2019. |
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Pauls Drum Shell Telescope Update 2018-11-10 |
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| Paul with the help of Mike is cutting a circle out of some Baltic Birch plywood to fit his 16 inch drum shell telescope. During the test fit he looks pretty pleased with the results. |
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