I was one of the first 30 scopes out there and it is truly an amazing thing. One thing we say is the discord server might be the best thing about it. It’s active all night, people sharing Nina setups, sharing images and the nightly guiding challenge. I’ve learned so much and feel my Astro has stepped up in the month and a half I’ve been out there. I’ve also jumped up the integration time on targets from 3-4 hours into the 15 hours because it’s so available, log into your system, setup your target and let it roll, chill on the discord for a bit and go to bed. You can easily spend 4 nights on a single target and not feel like you are repeating yourself. Highly recommend signing up
They are just a couple hours west of me. It's very tempting for me to have one rig out there. I like that they are catering to smaller scopes. Seems to me that astrophotography has seen a lot of growth in the past couple of years. I think this may do well for them.
@@johnsmith-rd9rr making it affordable by squeezing in a lot of piers with smaller scopes. I don't think there will be many 20" cdks riding on l500s there.
It looks like Bray and the team are killing it. I'd sign up if I had a friend to split the cost. I live in Botle 7 skies with street lights on both of sides of my house. I wonder how long people will keep paying the monthly bill? I wish the best for the Starfront guys. Maybe at some point they will add some rentals or time shares.
This is very cool. It isn’t something I’d personally do (I like messing with my gear too much and that’s half the hobby for me) but I think that this definitely makes more stable Astro conditions accessible for a wider audience. I don’t think it opens the door any further for making an entry into the hobby since one still needs to acquire their gear to send off to remote site. In this light I think they are niching on the mid to experienced level Astro people but probably also will include some pro and science people and organizations. Cheers! Doug
Hey Doug. Yes I just watched you and the eq5. I still need to watch and comment again. I’ve done this for 15 years. My interest in tinkering is small now. I’ve done too much of that. The software is golden now. Cameras and spacing is nearly standard. I would have sent my old rig there last year no problem. As I said 50-60 days of I’m lucky compared to 200 :) the ability to do things with your scope you could never do. Hey and you just keep a rig at home and mess with that one :)
@@easyastroimages5818 Good points and yeah, this makes a lot of sense for you and others with similar current interest areas in the hobby. The dismal Ohio conditions are definitely a selling point! Good lord man, I think I'd move 😀 I'm in Bortle 6 and that is one of the only things I complain under my breath about. But I enjoy traveling with my rig and getting out to some Dark skies. Planning on a Utah trip this fall. I have B4 available to me within about 25 min at my astronomy club's observatories too. Your point on the 2nd rig at home is a very strong one, that made me think twice about my interest in this type of service. Cheers! Doug
@@easyastroimages5818 I'm not sure if you have experience with remotely hosted rigs but do they take care of the occasional alignment? I realize that this is going to be less frequent on a pier but it is probably going to be necessary to manually align once in awhile.
It is a good deal, in the future people from the place should all collaborate in one single target get over 1000 hours of data that would be cool. Im thinking in future everyone their can work together and do some amazing images and discoveries
You ship your OTA, image train and mount and they put it on a pier under a roof. The cost to ship must be expensive. What happens when all the piers are rented, would they have to build a new structure with more piers? I’m fortunate to be retired and I travel full time in a motorhome. I’m currently staying in a Bortle 2 area in Utah. I’ve stayed in a Bortle 1 area, Capitol Reef NP, but between clouds and full moon, with the moon the skies didn’t seem any better than a Bortle 5 area, I didn’t get much imaging done.
Watch his videos. The plan is to keep building the buildings and filling them up. Sounds like they are moving forward on building 3 and 4. They custom make the piers so they can maximize space.
Shipping is crazy on anything but the other premium observatory’s charge extra thousands to receive and set your scope up. So again the value here is incredible
I was one of the first 30 scopes out there and it is truly an amazing thing. One thing we say is the discord server might be the best thing about it. It’s active all night, people sharing Nina setups, sharing images and the nightly guiding challenge. I’ve learned so much and feel my Astro has stepped up in the month and a half I’ve been out there. I’ve also jumped up the integration time on targets from 3-4 hours into the 15 hours because it’s so available, log into your system, setup your target and let it roll, chill on the discord for a bit and go to bed. You can easily spend 4 nights on a single target and not feel like you are repeating yourself. Highly recommend signing up
So amazing. I really want. Scope there
They are just a couple hours west of me. It's very tempting for me to have one rig out there. I like that they are catering to smaller scopes. Seems to me that astrophotography has seen a lot of growth in the past couple of years. I think this may do well for them.
Go for it! :) you’re making all that extra Cash working so much :) I sure hope it goes well for them man. It’s such an opportunity for people like us.
Go for it! :) you’re making all that extra Cash working so much :) I sure hope it goes well for them man. It’s such an opportunity for people like us.
They aren't "catering" to small rigs. They are making it affordable for everyone.
@@johnsmith-rd9rr making it affordable by squeezing in a lot of piers with smaller scopes. I don't think there will be many 20" cdks riding on l500s there.
@@DSOImager correct. Not sure where he’s coming from but Bray even stresses this.
It looks like Bray and the team are killing it. I'd sign up if I had a friend to split the cost. I live in Botle 7 skies with street lights on both of sides of my house. I wonder how long people will keep paying the monthly bill? I wish the best for the Starfront guys. Maybe at some point they will add some rentals or time shares.
This is very cool. It isn’t something I’d personally do (I like messing with my gear too much and that’s half the hobby for me) but I think that this definitely makes more stable Astro conditions accessible for a wider audience. I don’t think it opens the door any further for making an entry into the hobby since one still needs to acquire their gear to send off to remote site. In this light I think they are niching on the mid to experienced level Astro people but probably also will include some pro and science people and organizations.
Cheers!
Doug
Hey Doug. Yes I just watched you and the eq5. I still need to watch and comment again. I’ve done this for 15 years. My interest in tinkering is small now. I’ve done too much of that. The software is golden now. Cameras and spacing is nearly standard. I would have sent my old rig there last year no problem. As I said 50-60 days of I’m lucky compared to 200 :) the ability to do things with your scope you could never do. Hey and you just keep a rig at home and mess with that one :)
@@easyastroimages5818 Good points and yeah, this makes a lot of sense for you and others with similar current interest areas in the hobby. The dismal Ohio conditions are definitely a selling point! Good lord man, I think I'd move 😀 I'm in Bortle 6 and that is one of the only things I complain under my breath about. But I enjoy traveling with my rig and getting out to some Dark skies. Planning on a Utah trip this fall. I have B4 available to me within about 25 min at my astronomy club's observatories too.
Your point on the 2nd rig at home is a very strong one, that made me think twice about my interest in this type of service.
Cheers!
Doug
@@easyastroimages5818 I'm not sure if you have experience with remotely hosted rigs but do they take care of the occasional alignment? I realize that this is going to be less frequent on a pier but it is probably going to be necessary to manually align once in awhile.
It is a good deal, in the future people from the place should all collaborate in one single target get over 1000 hours of data that would be cool. Im thinking in future everyone their can work together and do some amazing images and discoveries
i hope so!!
You ship your OTA, image train and mount and they put it on a pier under a roof. The cost to ship must be expensive. What happens when all the piers are rented, would they have to build a new structure with more piers?
I’m fortunate to be retired and I travel full time in a motorhome. I’m currently staying in a Bortle 2 area in Utah. I’ve stayed in a Bortle 1 area, Capitol Reef NP, but between clouds and full moon, with the moon the skies didn’t seem any better than a Bortle 5 area, I didn’t get much imaging done.
Watch his videos. The plan is to keep building the buildings and filling them up. Sounds like they are moving forward on building 3 and 4. They custom make the piers so they can maximize space.
Shipping is crazy on anything but the other premium observatory’s charge extra thousands to receive and set your scope up. So again the value here is incredible
They are already building 3 more additional buildings for total of 5.
@@johnsmith-rd9rr I’m glad to see it’s killing it. Good for those guys following a dream.