Hiring Remote Telescopes?

[gavcol]

Hi All,

Now don't persecute me just yet! Please hear me out first.

But, I have been thinking of throwing all my gear up for sale.

I am thinking of doing this in favour of hiring remote telescopes (i.e. iTelescope.net).

I know you are all probably going to say that tinkering, DIY and using your own equipment is all part of the joy and reward. I totally agree!

But, I am tired of trawling gear in and out every night when I want to observe or image. I am never going to be able to afford the biggest and best imaging platform and equipment either. I don't have much room in my house either, and the place always seems to be cluttered with astro gear. I just don't seem to be getting the time to do this anymore either.

In addition, it is getting harder and harder to image and observe in suburbia. I have large supermarkets and shopping centres moving into the area all the time. With Aldi soon to start up (who apparently don't care much for preserving the night sky or electricity) and then Costco are also looking to move into the area.

Am I just getting old and grumpy? Deep down I don't know if I really want to, I do love my gear!

Thoughts? Pro's and Con's? Worthwhile? :scared3:

Regards

Gavin

[Atmos]

I have never used them so I don't have any personal experience to draw from. For a business that has its sole business model as selling time on various telescopes, I personally feel that they could do a better job at eliminating some issues.

About 6 months ago an image from there was on here and it was noted that there was a glow on one side of the image that was caused by an errant light within the facility (could be seen on an external camera or something). This type of thing shouldn't occur when spending $100's considering how needless it is.

I do hear of comments about tilt coming from these telescopes, something that I personally would have thought would have been sorted on long term permanent setups. Whether they're flex or something else I am unsure.

That is my little rant on the cons, there are many pros too! I personally don't see myself owning a CDK20" any time soon so being able to use one of those beasts would be awesome. High resolution images from really good skies, who can complain with that :P

I personally get more satisfaction from producing images that I have taken myself but I can totally understand the whole getting tired of trawling gear around. I've had my mount outside in the glorious sunny days for the last 5 days, packed and unpacked the rest of the equipment 3 times in those 5 days and didn't get a single frame due to cloud (bloody Melbourne weather!!:mad2::mad2::mad2:). Being able to just have it work without all of the associated work.... It certainly has an appeal :)

[Eden]

G'day Gavin,

There's nothing wrong with utilizing services like ITelescope.net and several folks here on the forum have used it, myself included. Although I agree it's more satisfying using your own equipment, it's not always practical (or possible, thanks to the weather).

I've only used iTelescope and I have had only positive experiences with it thus far -- their customer service is very professional and helpful, so if your images are not satisfactory due to unexpected weather or equipment issues, they promptly refund your credits.

They have a wide range of instruments to choose from and the price per imaging hour varies depending on the caliber of the equipment in question. Attempting several hours on a target using a long focal length instrument with a full frame sensor can quickly become an expensive affair, but if you can get instrument time on a night of good seeing, the resulting image quality does not disappoint. Their web interface is very easy to use and they have a lot of comprehensive documentation and videos to assist.

Getting a reservation on certain instruments can be difficult and they are often booked ahead by several weeks, sometimes months. This can make it tricky to get the instrument you want when seeing is spot on, and at a time when your desired target is near zenith, but worth the effort.

If you're serious about hiring an instrument for remote imaging I would definitely recommend iTelescope :thumbsup:

[gavcol]

Thanks Brett and Colin

Some great information thanks.

Good to get insight too from people who have used them.

Colin, I think what would really help would be if my wife would agree to let me build an obs. This would save me significant grief with lifting and setting up equipment all the time. She isn't having any of it though!

She did agree a few years back, then she backed out and made me plant an apple tree in the area I cleared out.

Oh well, maybe get a trial membership and she what it's like perhaps.

Thanks Gav :thumbsup:

[Slawomir]

Hi Gavin,

I would try hiring remote telescopes first before selling your own gear, so trial membership is a great idea.

Personally, although it was quite exciting at the start, I very quickly lost interest in hiring remote telescopes. It very much felt like fishing in a computer game vs the real thing :lol:

[Hans Tucker]

There is an article in Issue 88 of Australian Sky & Telescope by Damian Peach titled Armchair Imaging covering the topic of remote telescope hiring...might be worth a read. The only con I see is cost...iTelescope.net seems good value for money.

[Atmos]

Definitely is! It is a tad cheaper to buy time on the CDK700 than spend near $250,000 WITHOUT an observatory to house it in :P

[RickS]

I really enjoy capturing data myself but I don't have a permanent observatory or dark skies at home, so I'm limited to narrow band across a small wedge of sky and LRGB a few new moon weekends a year when the skies are clear. So, I'm quite happy to supplement my meagre quantities of DIY data with data from remote systems.

Instead of hiring time on a remote scope I have taken the alternate approach of sharing the cost of running a remote system with a few like minded individuals. We select targets as a group and then everybody has access to the data. So far that has worked quite well despite the potential for arguments over targets and half a dozen people all posting images that look much the same at once :)

It's a bigger commitment and more effort to organise but maybe worth considering...

Cheers,
Rick.

[rustigsmed]

how about capturing Luminance or Ha from the awesome remote setups, dark skies good resolution and capturing OSC from home and combining them? A little bit from column A and B...

[Edtelescope]

take a look at it, use theskyx is possible to see deep sky and planetary system also
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/978114944/telescope-br-remote-reality

[Edtelescope]

Did you see the video, it seems easier to use