About Us

Astro Observatories Western Australia is a business operated by highly regarded West-Australian astrophotography Roger Groom.

Scroll to find out more about AOWA and Roger Groom

Introducing

Roger Groom

Roger is a Perth based astrophotographer and astronomer with over 20 years experience. Roger has held positions including the Chairperson of the Perth Observatory Volunteer Group, designed and operated remote astronomy setups, runs astrophotography workshops, sells astrophotography, participates in astronomical research and also works in Information Technology as a Software Engineer. You can see some more of Roger's work at Astro Photography Australia and RogerGroom.com.

In 2018 Roger started Astro Observatories Western Australia, an Australian company (ABN 62616934573 ACN 616934573) with the aim of hosting remote telescopes at a dark sky site.

Telescopes, astronomy and

Observatories

Roger built his first observatory in 2001 after starting his astronomy journey with a small telescope in 1998. It was not long before that observatory was fully automated and Roger had written systems to maximise efficiency of observation programs such as supernova searching, regular comet observations and minor planet observations.

Culmination of years of planning

The Site

In 2018 a carefully chosen property was purchased upon which to build Astro Observatories Western Australia facilities. This site in the Central Wheatbelt approximately 150km from Perth is located under dark skies with good serviceability and connectivity. The site is also large enough to have areas aesthetically pleasing for landscape and wide-field astrophotography purposes, separate to the open observing fields.

Software Engineering & Electronics

Design and Maintenance

Roger has extensive knowledge in the fields of software engineering, electronics and solutions including Internet-Of-things (IoT), Cloud based SaaS solutions for integrating on-site electronics with automation, industrial control systems and observatory control systems. These skills have allowed Roger to custom design and build much of the observatory infrastructure to facilitate smooth operation of a remote observatory.