Igomoo Observatory

Located in the beautiful Hunter Valley in N.S.W. Australia. Built 3 years ago to house a large 12” Meade LX200GPS telescope the observatory has grown to house a number of telescopes and cameras used for a variety of projects.

Igomoo Observatory current setup includes 3 telescopes, 3 computers and 5 cameras. To house all this equipment Igomoo utilize a design called a Roll - off - Roof Observatory. Very different to the traditional design known as a Dome Observatory. The Roll – Off – Roof design was chosen for its ability to cool down the telescopes quicker than the traditional Dome design. It is very important for the telescope to cool down to ambient temperature as quickly as possible. A telescope that hasn't stabilized will show unsteady images especially at high magnification.

Equipment

To bring all our members these amazing images Igomoo Observatory utilize the best equipment we can lay our hands on. Our equipment is constantly in a state of evolution, trying new cameras and software to ever improve the final product that we deliver to you. Below you will find a brief description of the equipment we currently employ at Igomoo Observatory.Igomoo Observatory utilizes 3 types of telescopes to cover a wide range of viewing criteria. These can be Wide Field Views to High Magnification.The star of the show is a large 12 inch Meade LX200GPS Telescope

The LX200GPS is a Catadioptric telescopes design which uses a compound optical systems. That is, both mirrors and lenses are employed to collect and focus incoming light. The observer peers through an eyepiece at the rear of the telescope tube, where the light is focused. The two most commercially available Catadioptric designs are Schmidt-Cassegrains and Maksutov-Cassegrains. They offer excellent portability, as the optical tubes are compact in design, as well as very good optical quality. They are the most popular type of telescopes for astrophotography. They tend to be more expensive than reflectors, and less expensive than refractors of the same size.

The LX200GPS is used for high magnification views of the Moon, Planets and Sun. By attaching a device known as a Focal Reducer we are able to make the telescope into a fast f 4 photo system compared to the standard f 10. This means that photos taken at f 4 require 80% less exposure time.

The down fall for such a large telescope is that it does take a long time to cool down to ambient temperature once the sun goes down.

LX200GPS Specification:

Specifications: 12” Schmidt-Cassegrain (D = 305mm, F = 3048mm, f/10) optical tube assembly with MgF2 coatings on the correcting lens and standard aluminum coatings on the primary and secondary mirrors (Ultra-High Transmission Coatings available optionally); primary mirror lock; 4-speed Zero Image-Shift Microfocuser; heavy-duty fork mount, with 4"-diameter polar ball bearing, dual-axis 5.75" worm gears, and 7-port multi-function control panel, including two RS-232 serial interface ports; manual and electric slow-motion controls on both axes; setting circles in RA and Dec; Autostar II control system, 3.5-Megabyte flash memory, digital readout display, permanently-programmable Smart Drive and 185-speed drive controls on both axes, High-Precision Pointing, and 145,000-object onboard celestial software library; GPS alignment system with 16-channel GPS receiver, magnetic declination compensation, and true-level and North electronic sensors; Smart Mount which improves the pointing accuracy of your LX200GPS-SMT telescope's "Go To" system.