Opened 26 October 1996 | ||
Similar Prescott Observatory, Kleť Observatory, United States Naval Ob, Fred Lawrence Whipple, Karl Schwarzschild Observatory | ||
The Goodricke-Pigott Observatory is a private astronomical observatory in Tucson, Arizona. It was formally dedicated on October 26, 1996, and observations began that evening with imaging of Comet Hale–Bopp.
The observatory is named after two late-eighteenth century astronomers who lived in York, England - John Goodricke and Edward Pigott.
Observatory telescopes
The observatory opened with a Celestron C14, 0.35-meter aperture, f/11 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. This instrument has been upgraded with a new optics lens and a new clock drive, and an ST-4 star tracker was attached to the telescope's side to correct a two-minute, ten-arc second periodic motional error. There is another telescope dubbed MOTESS (Moving Object and Transient Event Search System) which is essentially a giant camera aimed at the sky.