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Bray Falls: Maybe I am just old and out of touch but I feel like the images are just that much less your own if you do not set up and configure the equipment. That goes double if you are just renting equipment. Feel free to flame away.  |
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Bill McLaughlin: There's a part of the Astro community that feels that way and a part that does not. I think it's all up to the individual. Mike Selby runs a bunch of scopes at Obstech, one of which is a PlaneWave CDK 1000. He has never gone on site and all of his equipment has been set up by the folks on site. I'm positive he feels those images are all his. I personally think any image someone has created from data is theirs. |
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I'm 73 years old and actually enjoy driving to a dark site (there's a comfortable house with wifi and full kitchen) and imaging with a few other guys. It gets me out of the city and the fellowship is a lot of fun. I can see the draw of a remote site, but man, the monthly rental fee is way over-the-top. I can afford it, I just don't know if I want to pay that much to rent a small space for a scope. But in a few years, well, that might be a different story... I'm a guy who even prefers manual focusing (at least with a refractor) as I am getting sharp images. Electronic focusers are OK but they take much longer to come to focus than I can do by hand and eye. |
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Bill McLaughlin:Bray Falls: Being far away doesn't prevent you from setting up your own equipment. I enjoyed going to Chile and putting my rig together and going back a year later to do maintenance. Happily, the lower price more than covers the travel expense. But these are personal choices to be made. Kevin |
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I live in the USA (East Coast) but I grew up in Spain, so I have set up my first (and probably not last) remote observatory in Northern Spain. This was a bit of an experiment with equipment that was very well tested and that I took with me on a trip (I travel to Spain regularly), except for the mount which I bought there (and tested before taking to the hosting site). The price can't be beat, and although this site doesn't have the most amount of clear nights it is already a significant change for me, allowing me to complete projects that were out of reach from the city. At first having the equipment an ocean away is a bit stressful, but you get used to it. I have had a minor issue that was solved by the staff onsite but that didn't stop me from imaging (flat panel light went bad but could still open, I sent a replacement and they changed it). I am happy with this set up for now and the time difference works in my favor, it's nice to start imaging at lunch time (the gear is pretty much fully automated now with NINA, and it can go for days on its own). Having an option a few hours away is probably the right way to go to get started. I think good service and confidence in the staff that is taking care of your gear is key in order to be happy with this approach. I concur that some of the prices out there are a bit insane. We need a mid-tier that is more affordable (I would say in the $300-$400 range or so for the US), and I think (hope) this will happen with some offerings at some point |
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I live in the USA (East Coast) but I grew up in Spain, so I have set up my first (and probably not last) remote observatory in Northern Spain. This was a bit of an experiment with equipment that was very well tested and that I took with me on a trip (I travel to Spain regularly), except for the mount which I bought there (and tested before taking to the hosting site). The price can't be beat, and although this site doesn't have the most amount of clear nights it is already a significant change for me, allowing me to complete projects that were out of reach from the city. I agree, $300-400 a month is quite reasonable, even $500. SRO wants $1750 a month to host a 7" refractor, plus $2000 to install a pier. It's unreasonable and I won't go for that. Speaking of flats, how does one throw a T-shirt around a scope to do flats in the morning (that's what I've been doing) or use a LED flat-panel at a hosting site? Wouldn't someone at the site need to do that? |
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Jerry Gerber:I live in the USA (East Coast) but I grew up in Spain, so I have set up my first (and probably not last) remote observatory in Northern Spain. This was a bit of an experiment with equipment that was very well tested and that I took with me on a trip (I travel to Spain regularly), except for the mount which I bought there (and tested before taking to the hosting site). The price can't be beat, and although this site doesn't have the most amount of clear nights it is already a significant change for me, allowing me to complete projects that were out of reach from the city. You need to automate flats as well. In my case (refractor) I have an automated flat panel that can be controlled by NINA. For larger scopes you can also take sky flats |
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Kevin Morefield:Bill McLaughlin:Bray Falls: For sure! It is a great opportunity for travel (been to Chile and the Atacama but not for astronomy though  ). I enjoy my trips to the remote site and the time under dark skies. It is nice to image from your office but it is also great to get out of that office and under a dark sky!
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You need to automate flats as well. In my case (refractor) I have an automated flat panel that can be controlled by NINA. For larger scopes you can also take sky flats You can take sky flats for any telescope. |
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| The timing of this thread is very good for me as well. I am heading out west for a three week camping trip that has a very specific purpose of checking out remote hosting sites. I am stopping at UDRO as well as the three (that I'm aware of) in the Animas, NM area and finally hope to squeeze in Grand Mesa in Colorado. I just finalized my order for an AP1600GTO AEL to replace my MX+ and plan to get all the kinks worked out here in my backyard rolloff and then moving the setup out west when I retire (or shortly before...2-3 years from now). |
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Jerry Gerber: Thats what I do with a Spike-a-Flat. Just send a text and they place it for me and remove it when I'm done. I did sky flats for a while but wasn't a fan. |
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Jerry Gerber:=14pxSpeaking of flats, how does one throw a T-shirt around a scope to do flats in the morning (that's what I've been doing) or use a LED flat-panel at a hosting site? Wouldn't someone at the site need to do that? In Chile the majority use sky flats. No T-shirt is needed and mostly like preferred not to have one. If you think about the professional observatories with multi-meter size scopes, they don't have a light panel the size of a house nor a T-shirt that size either. Pretty sure they use sky flats. Kevin |
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 Kevin Morefield:Jerry Gerber:=14pxSpeaking of flats, how does one throw a T-shirt around a scope to do flats in the morning (that's what I've been doing) or use a LED flat-panel at a hosting site? Wouldn't someone at the site need to do that? Fun fact, sometimes they do actually have a house sized flat panel! This is the 4.1m blanco telescope at cerro tololo I visited last month. The actually have two of them in the dome, one of them is broken and they've just left it up there. |
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Reg Pratt: What was the problem with them? |
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Bill Long - Dark Matters Astrophotography:Reg Pratt: No problem, they work. The target ADU for my system is just very strict and as a result the window to get good flats is quite short. It took 2 3 sessions (dawn, dusk, dawn) to get a full set. Panel is just easy for me. |
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Reg Pratt:Bill Long - Dark Matters Astrophotography:Reg Pratt: Correct me if I am wrong, but you have an IMX571 sensor. This should be a cakewalk to get SkyFlats for. |
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Bill Long - Dark Matters Astrophotography:Reg Pratt:Bill Long - Dark Matters Astrophotography:Reg Pratt: When paired with my newt if the flats are too bright I get ringing artifacts in the calibrated lights. It was a whole thing I spent weeks troubleshooting. While in still not sure of the cause, I've found the solution was to keep my flats below 800 ADU. Works like a charm but makes the window for sky flats much smaller. Panel flats are just easier. |
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This discussion has wandered all over the place so I'll add my off topic comments about flats. I too am not a huge fan of sky flats. Yes, they work and yes, ALL of the larger scopes at Obstech rely on them, but I prefer using a flat panel. The flat panel is very repeatable, I don't have to be careful about dithering to filter out star images, and the exposures are preset. As I showed in a forum post and on my "New 24" image/story, I use a 30" homemade EL panel with adjustable brightness mounted on a lift stand with my 24" scope. I picked a phosphor that allows taking all of my LRGB flats with 3 second or less exposures and keeps the exposure time "manageable" even with NB filters. Since I don't use a rotator, my flats are very long lasting and I really only take a new set when it's cloudy and the roof is closed, which only happens a few times per year. I believe that my scope is one of only a few of the larger scopes at Obstech that incorporates a flat panel. I use a Flip-Flat on my refractor and I used to use a wall mounted LED panel with my former 14" at DSW. Sky flats are my backup should I have any trouble with my panels but for now the panel is working really well. And yes, many large observatory telescopes also use large flat panels attached to the dome as Bray demonstrated. Not all of them are self illuminating and are basically just a large white diffuser panel illuminated by spot lights. John |
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Bray Falls:Kevin Morefield:Jerry Gerber:=14pxSpeaking of flats, how does one throw a T-shirt around a scope to do flats in the morning (that's what I've been doing) or use a LED flat-panel at a hosting site? Wouldn't someone at the site need to do that? I stand corrected! I've not noticed those in the observatories I've visited. Have you seen others? |
