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.

  3D Printed Dob Truss Pole Clamp Set
2021-07-23
This is a 3D printed 1" truss pole clamp set for a Dobsonian telescope. The STL files and editable
model is available on www.tinkercad.com. Links on where to get the knobs, truss poles and other
parts are in the comment fields there also. The parts have been printed and fit nicely but have not
been tested on a scope yet.

  3D Printed Telrad Dew Shield
2021-01-04
Using an Ender 5 3D printer and a file from Thingiverse I printed a Telrad dew shield. The 16 inch
Maxx has a blue focuser so I used blue plastic for the dew shield. It's a snug fit and the cutout
for the Telrad dimmer could be a bit larger towards the front. It's time to tweak the model a bit.

  Joe W. with his 8" f/8 "planet hunter" he built
2020-10-23
He put the newly recoated mirror in the scope today and gave it a general tune up. Still in good
shape for being about 15 years old.

  Joe got John Dobson's signature on his scope
2020-10-23
Joe got John Dobson the give his scope the seal of approval at the 2005 OBS Star Party held at
Alafia River State Park.

  Mike P's 16" Scope is Taking Shape
2020-08-23
Mike's pieces for his 16" Dob. base have been rough cut out.

  Bino Bill with his finished 10" scope
2020-08-16
Bill showing off his finished scope made at the mirror lab

  Brad's mirror box glued up
2020-08-13
After a bit of a hammer fit the box joints came together

  Brad Cutting box joints
2020-08-13
Brad Cutting box joints for the mirror box for his 16" mirror

  Raffle Scope for 2021 OBS Star Party Takes Shape
2020-08-03
Original Meade LightBridge base

  Raffle Scope for 2021 OBS Star Party
2020-08-03
Cutting out the new pieces for assembly

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