The Department of Astrophysics maintains an advanced laboratory for developing astronomical instrumentation under the direction of Associate Curator Ben R. Oppenheimer. The lab includes a class 1000 clean room, vibration stabilized optical benches, a Zygo GPI-xHR interferometer, an Phoenix infrared camera, a 4 foot Coordinate Measuring Machine, as well as a complete set of hardware and tools, including light sources, an extremely bright supercontinuum laser, and diagnostic video cameras. An adjacent room is used for electronics development as well as work not suited to the clean-room environment. The lab produced the Lyot Project's coronagraph, its first instrument, deployed at the US Air Force AEOS telescope, the Project 1640 Spectrograph and Coronagraph, currently deployed at Palomar Observatory, and the Gemini Planet Imager Coronagraphic Testbed, in operational residence in the lab.