Sky and Telescope - August 2015 - 71

ial companies have established "telescope farms" that
provide access to sky conditions far superior to what
most of us encounter in our own backyards - and at a
reasonable cost.
Currently three businesses oﬀer completely independent time on their instruments to provide raw, uncalibrated data: iTelescope (itelescope.net), LightBuckets
(lightbuckets.com), and the Sierra Stars Observatory
Network (sierrastars.com). Their facilities are located
under some of the darkest skies in the U.S., including in
New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Additional facilities are open in Siding Spring Observatory in Australia
and Europe. Spreading the facilities out worldwide in
various longitudes oﬀers users a good chance that an
instrument will be available at any given time.
Rental telescopes vary greatly in aperture, focal ratio,
and detector size, with each setup specialized toward
speciﬁc tasks. For example, small fast astrographs such
as the popular Takahashi FSQ-106, coupled with largeformat CCD cameras, are best suited to capturing expansive vistas several degrees across. These are ideal for
shooting large nebulous regions within the Milky Way,
open clusters, or the rare bright comet. On the other
end of the range are large-aperture instruments geared
toward shooting faint galaxies or planetary nebulae, or
doing variable-star photometry. Currently there are no
telescopes dedicated to planetary imaging, though I'm
sure this will eventually change.
As should be expected, each instrument rides atop
the best robotic mounts, which oﬀer extremely accurate
pointing and tracking. Additionally, most are equipped
with a wide range of ﬁlters from broadband red, green,
and blue to specialized narrowband and photometric

ﬁlter sets. Some smaller telescopes oﬀer one-shot-color
cameras that are great for beginners and deliver surprisingly good results.
Because these services cater to diﬀerent levels of
interest and experience, it's important to understand
how to use the equipment to get the most out of it. Most
rental facilities available to amateurs are interfaced using
ACP (Astronomer's Control Panel) by DC-3 Dreams,
which was detailed in the May issue, page 64.
To help beginners get comfortable with using remote
systems, most providers oﬀer a free trial that lets you use
one of the smaller telescopes to take an image. This is a
great way to experience ﬁrsthand how the service operates without making a major commitment. After that,
the hourly rates are very reasonable, especially when you
consider the cost of setting up and operating a remote
observatory yourself.

It's All in the Planning
To get started, check the services provided by each
facility and ﬁnd the one that best ﬁts your interests.
Then create a user account with the provider through its
website. Once registered you're ready to book your time.
Costs vary depending on the telescope - larger scopes
are costlier to operate than smaller ones - and the
length of exposure you desire. With some providers the
cost is also aﬀected by your membership level.
Before simply diving in and taking images, however,
it's important to plan ahead so that you aren't wasting
precious time and money haphazardly shooting targets.
A critical piece of equipment you'll need in addition to
your processing software to get the most out of your
rental experience is an advanced desktop sky simula-

ITELESCOPE.NET

DRONE SCOPES Using rental telescopes such as the iTelescope observatory at Siding
Spring Observatory, Australia, anyone can take gorgeous images of galaxies, star clusters,
or comets from the comfort of home.

Sk yandTelescope.com August 2015

http://www.itelescope.net http://www.lightbuckets.com http://www.sierrastars.com http://www.SkyandTelescope.com

Sky and Telescope - August 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - August 2015