Searching For Igor

The Igor Telescope has not been used in at least 8 years.

Igor sits in a secluded area adjacent to the University Medical Center on the south side, between Indiana and Quaker Aves.

However, Igor is not a person. It’s a telescope.

According to the website for White Sands Missile Range Park, the Igor is a tracking telescope designed to provide photographic evidence for missile performance.

Igor consists of a telescope optical system, high-speed movie camera and sighting telescope. It also has a modified U.S. Navy gun mount. According to the American Astronomical Society website, Igor was donated to Tech by White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico.

Gwen Armstrong, an astronomy teacher for the Department of Physics at Texas Tech University, said it best.

“It’s just like what you would see on a big ship firing a huge gun,” Armstrong said. “Only, it’s got a telescope instead of a big gun.”

Armstrong said the Igor was an on-campus observatory used for outdoor astronomy labs.

“We would also,” Armstrong said, “at that time, have public viewings where we would open the scope on the evenings, invite the public, and they could come out and look through a nice scope at different objects at the sky.”

Armstrong said the telescope has not been in use for at least eight years.

“It’s just sitting there,” Armstrong said.

According to Armstrong, the reason why the telescope and the observatory have not been in use is due to an increase in light pollution near the area.

“It’s difficult to do any kind of real observing,” Armstrong said, “when there’s so much light pollution you could hardly see anything.”

The only observatory in use for astronomy classes at Tech is the the Preston F. Gott Skyview Observatory, often called Skyview or Gott observatory. According to the official website for the observatory, it is located 15 miles away from campus and away from the light pollution in Lubbock.

Maurice Clark, Ph.D., an assistant professor of physics, said although the observatory is open to Tech astronomy students, it’s not open to the general public often. He said it is open to the public on special occasions.

The telescope has been off limits to visitors for years.

“Like a couple of years ago we had an eclipse,” Clark said.

However, Clark said he has three reasons why it generally is not open to the public, including security.

“Apart from locks on the door,” Clark said, “there’s no security out there. If lots of people get to know where the observatory is, what’s the risk of break-ins and things being stolen?”

Another reason Clark has for the lack of open viewings is the distance the public has to travel to the observatory, and a third reason is the lack of space.

“It’s just the physical size of the land — you can’t get too many cars in there,” Clark said.

Astronomy instructor Armstrong said there was talk of moving the Igor telescope to the museum at Tech.

“That thing is heavy, and the scope itself is heavy,” Armstrong said. “It’s just not going to be easy to move it.”

Clark said there were discussions about doing public viewings in Lubbock, and he brought up the topic of refurbishing the Igor telescope.

“I would still like to see that done,” Clark said, “but who knows if that’s actually ever going to happen.”

Clark said money is an issue for refurbishing the Igor, but the problem is who is willing to contribute.

“I think it would be great,” Clark said, “if they could find somebody willing to put up some money to do it. I hate to see a good telescope not being used, just wasted. I hate that. That’s just me.”