The Goodricke-Pigott Observatory is a private astronomical observatory in Tucson, Arizona

Tucson, Arizona

Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...

. It was formally dedicated on October 26, 1996, and observations began that evening with imaging of Comet Hale-Bopp

Comet Hale-Bopp

Comet Hale–Bopp was perhaps the most widely observed comet of the 20th century, and one of the brightest seen for many decades...

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The observatory is named after two late-eighteenth century astronomers who lived in York

York

York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 - John Goodricke

John Goodricke

John Goodricke FRS was an eminent and profoundly deaf amateur astronomer. He is best known for his observations of the variable star Algol in 1782.- Life and work :...

 and Edward Pigott

Edward Pigott

Edward Pigott was an English astronomer, and the son of astronomer Nathaniel Pigott and Anna Mathurine de Bériot . Probably born in Whitton, Middlesex, his elder brother, Charles Gregory, died in young age. He also had a younger sister, Mathurina...

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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.