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 polishing a 12.5 inch wih a light weight sub-diameter tool 2014-07-05 |
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| The light weight tool is needed to prevent uneven polishing where the glass is hollowed out on the back and the surface is thinner. |
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Zerodur mirror finished for a lab scope 2014-04-28 |
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| Ralph (left) and Allen finished a 12 inch Zerodur mirror. This f4.4 mirror will stay with us at the lab as a demo scope and for public viewing nights. It came in at 1/7th wave and is very smooth and well polished. |
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Two polishers 2014-04-18 |
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| Brad Lytle (left), Mike Davis (right) polish their mirrors and John ONeill visits the lab. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Scott finished his mirror 2013-09-14 |
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| This is a beautiful 8 inch, 1/9th wave mirror that has a stunning polish and a perfect edge. Nice work Scott! |
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The FigureXP results of Scott's Mirror 2013-09-14 |
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| The other axis was slightly less so we're using it to call this a 1/9th wave mirror. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Mike polishing towards a sphere 2013-08-25 |
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| Mike is helping out during the polishing phase of his son's 8 inch mirror. There was a 500nm hill in the middle that he was cleaning up. By the end of the day the shape was a nice sphere and the laser test said that middle was polished. Once the polish works its way to the edge Scott will start figuring. (Photo by Scott) |
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Lenny Remetta is visiting the heavens 2013-08-05 |
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| Our friend, fellow astronomer, bike rider, photographer and mirror lab rat, Lenny Remetta, passed away in mid July 2013. We miss you Lenny and we'll be thinking of you every time we look up! |
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Lab staff 18th wave mirror 2013-08-05 |
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| The mirror lab staff occasionally makes a mirror in our spare time. This 10" mirror, with final figuring by Ralph Craig, finished with a beautiful 18th wave figure. Okay, the other axis was only 16th wave. |
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Glass Stress - X marks the spot 2013-08-05 |
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| The black background is actually a white LCD screen with a polarizing filter blocking its linearly polarized light. If the glass (tool here) had no stress it too would be black. The stress in the glass bends the light and allows it to pass through the filter. This glass will be annealed and later made into a mirror. |
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Scott begins his mirror 2013-07-06 |
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| Scott begins hogging out his 8" mirror. According to the sagitta meter (the bar and gauge on the mirror) he reached about half of the needed depth during the first lab session. |
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