I try a remote observatory run by Bray Falls 

I love when my favorite astrophotographers work together

"Days since last flat panel accident" - made my day 🙂

I can’t afford the $200 right now plus the upfront equipment costs but it could be fun to team up with some other astrophotographers and share the imaging time. This would lower the costs even more. That being said, Bray and his team have done a phenomenal job of lowering the barrier to entry. I am very excited for them!

Excellent work Nico, you're making really wonderful videos mate 👍

I'd love an option like this for us UK folks. I worry I'd have the same issues of not enjoying being more involved. Set up is part of the process and something I thoroughly enjoy, but this option can make it more accessible for the times where I have less energy to set up and take down kit. Thanks for showing us this!

Starfront has been great so far. The data is so clean especially towards and during new moon. The support is great (had a few unforeseen hiccups with an EAF bracket coming loose and they were able to fix it up), and the price is hard to beat if you can afford it. Hoping to be there for a long time! Their goals are ambitious but would be so worth it, and I would love to see them pull it off.

Remote imaging will definitely change the way you work. I labored for 4 years in a Bortle 8 back yard--and like you, I will continue to do so. But now I have three rigs at Deep Sky West--an FSQ with reducer, a TOA130, and a CDK12. This has more than doubled the number of targets available to me and has changed the way I think long term. I can consider things like large mosaics, or going very deep on a target to pull out unusual things. Unlike you, I don't really enjoy tinkering with gear, but I've never done more tinkering than what I had to do to get three rigs ready to go out into the world on their own. Troubleshooting remotely is sometimes very difficult. Far moreso than doing it at home. But I can't argue with the quality or quantity of the data.

thank you, my setup will be at starfront very soon

My girlfriend asked me the other day, after I was ( again! ) complaining about the awful weather here in the UK "Wes, why not sign up for that remote imaging online, that way you can do tons more astrophotography?" to which I replied "Darling, I prefer to drive a real race car on a real race track...racing simulators just don't do it for me!" And therein lies the problem for me personally! I just cannot get excited about VR astrophotography! Thanks for the great content as always Nico! Love the channel!

The concurrent imaging with the backyard and remote rig is a bit of mind melt. I was the same waiting for my home rig to slew! 😂😂

Thanks for covering this. I'll be traveling there next week to drop off my rig!

Such a cool concept. Hopefully they fill up with users and flourish.

A very cool concept. Curious if they stream audio/video from the site that uses can monitor. (I suppose part of your set up could be a video monitor?) That way you could see and hear your equipment. I like the community idea too. I have joined in virtual star parties where participants communicate and share real time images. Very cool. PS. Here in Northern Nevada, we are having great clear skies around this New Moon. I am gathering data and no time for any processing. LOL You are going to find out how astro data overload feels. Clear skies.

Such a cool concept! Thanks for sharing this, Nico! Wishing you a happy journey with this setup from all the way in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Fantastic idea. As soon ss im up with a new setup ill definitely consider sending it over to you guys....

Living near Chicago and only having sky open in the direction of Chicago this video has really got me thinking... Thanks for the video 🙂

Very cool idea. Thanks for sharing.

This is the future, makes so much sense and removes a great deal of clutter.

Nico my wife and I just got back from seven days in Whitefield just off route 115. I had one clear night but made the most of it. We will be retiring up there in two years and we just purchased 25.5 acres in Whitefield off 115. Looking forward to some Bortle three Bortle two skies compared to my bortle 8 down here on Long Island, I have to admit you’ve made this look very enticing.

This is pretty awesome!

Just caught the 'man with hammer fixing pier to concrete', might want to edit that out

I dropped off my rig a week ago and ran into Galaxy Hunters, then to see Nico in the Discord it’s awesome. I will second the fact that it’s like a star party but almost better cause you don’t have the awkward space nerd energy as the conversation starts :)

I was excited about this... until I figured out that this is just a place for remote work only not a site where I can bring my basic tracker and enjoy the view as I do my photography. I guess I'll still be looking for a place to go. Still, nice review.

Super idea, can you show us your workflow from beginning to end at some point? Trying to see how it works especially with ASIAIR. Thank you Nico

Super cool, Nico! I can't imagine access to 7 clear nights in a row without moving. I wonder how long it will be before you catch the bug to set up Nico3 at a similar spot south of the equator 😁

This would be worth signing up to with a rig share syndicate.

What a cool idea

that's cool as heck

How exciting

What an interesting idea.. if I was making money selling shots that seems like a fun experiment

Good job you 2..

Good video Nico! For me right now, it's not worth it but we'll see in a year or 2... I believe this is a good idea for a lot of folks so I believe that they probably won't have any room soon without additional buildings. I can also see where they might have to raise the rent soon, the economy being what it is...

I've tried Several times to watch this, with is repeatedly pausing (at the exact same spots) until it finally locks up a few minutes in. I also closed my browser and tried again to no avail. All other Utube videos work fine, and I'm a paid Utube member. Good Luck Nico, I tried.

Thats exceptional! Ive seen the Planewave and Takahashi high end stuff in remotes but those guys generally have grants and endowments, (or a Ferrari) this is a neat idea... Id love to watch one of those barns around midnight local time with everything slewing and just imagine what everyone is going for. Great video

Super cool Nico! Watched your video on the instrument build, but forgot the price of all the components…. Curious to see what a year would cost all in.

You just got an AP mount? Sweeeet

Looks interesting, but my worry is what are they doing to protect the wide-open box full of expensive equipment?

Waiting for the day we can send our scopes to do remote AP on the moon :) No atmosphere

Astrophotographers are the best people

With ligh pollution growing each year, I think remote observatories will only gain popularity in the future. The only thing I would worry about and I'm not talking about just Bray's observatory but in general is if there is some kinds of insurance in place, just in case, for example in case of a tornado.

Very cool! Just wondering, if I had an 6200 asi and the subs are quite large how would the bandwidth work? Im just thinking if theres 20-100 people uploading constantly from their ISP it would bottleneck or something ? Might be more a question for the guys at the Observatory...

Nico, can we assume you confirmed this truly is Bortle 1? I find it awfully hard to believe that region of Texas is that dark! (I do admit, though, I could be wrong!)

H Niko, very nice video. I saw that comming since Bray's old youtube videos haha. Question: What kind of filters did you leave there? Does bortle 1 really need filters? :D

When you became full time astrophotographer, it was suggested to move to West Texas or NM. You moved to NE, made observatory in Bortle 2; and now …. Paying 200 a month for observation from Texas.

Slewing the wrong telescope is just a weird flex 😂

I would agree Niko living in New England it seems to me the weather has changed to where we seldom get multiple days of clear skies. When I was younger it seemed common place that you would see clear nights with plenty of stars. I fear this is becomming a not so much a trend as a more established long term reality tied to climate change. Your thoughts?

Interesting. I'm sure we'll hear all about it on the Patreon chat this weekend, but I have three questions: (1) lag time and reliability of the connection and (2) it's not obvious to me how you would run an ASI Air remotely - saw some scopes with one - it needs to be on the same network as you and (3) do they allow clients to come down for the initial setup - I'm sure they do a great job, but like you and your hands-on interest, I'd prefer to confirm it's set up the way I want even if they do the work.

Hey Nico, how does one take Darks and Flats after an imaging session from a remote observatory?

Nice setup, but I don't think the area around Brady Texas is Bortle 1. Big Bend is Bortle 1. According to the International Dark Sky Atlas, looks like this area is maybe Bortle 2 or 3. Which is still good.

I love this for people that don't have access to their own property but I really enjoy physically setting up and manipulating my setup, that's half the fun 🤷‍♂

You would not happen to know a place like this that you could rent time on a scope?

Why not use large telescopes setup remotely already? I find backyard setup much more enjoyable even though it’s Bortle 8 skies

Hey Nico, thanks for reporting on the observatory! I looked into this when it was first announced. Did you get your gear insured?

A few comments. It's very useful for the user, when you have a remote telescope, to see the weather conditions, all sky camera, seeing monitor so that one can decide to shoot or not. You didn't mention anything about this. Also having an ipcam showing your telescope (not the whole shed from a large distance is sometimes useful to debug a situation. What about power requirements ? Some people want to use relatively big desktop with GPU boards which consume a lot of power, and transmit also a huge amount of data, too bad you didn't mention anything about this. My experience (as a owner of such a facility) is that a small telescope can require as much maintenance as a big one. So in my case I don't make difference about a 20 inch or a 2 inch, it might require as much of my time to maintain it. I also refuse to take some setups which are either unreliable, or a bitch to collimate. Refractors are nice for that.

Now I need to know the background story about this day since flat panel incident board.

This is such a great idea Bray and co are onto a great business plan here. I would totally take this up, but as I am not in the US I assume that’s me out!

What a great idea, I am definitely considering this. I am on a fixed income, but I suspect that one could get a few partners and lower the cost significantly.

I know you are using SGP but one thing I like about NINA is being able to have a custom color scheme for each instance. Never used sequence generator to know if that is an option for you. Maybe a good way to keep which system you are controlling straight.

Hey Nico, recent sub with your build videos. I actually though this video was going to be about destination astrophotography. Being new, have you done anything on travel astrophotography? Like a AirBnB with telescope access or something similar. Are you aware of anything like this? Would you possibly do a video about it if you haven't already. I just purchased a Dwarf 2 and I'm heading up to Acadia in about a week. Looking forward to using it for the first time up there. Thank you in advance.

I decided instead to buy a home at 8000ft with very low humidity, clear transparent Bortle 1 skies, and a handful of homes within 25 miles. There's a international dark sky preserve that takes up the 20 miles to the north, federal land for miles out back, as well as 20 miles south and west. Sangre de cristo mtns.

👍👍

Hi Nicolas, I have been watching quite a lot of your tutoriam 2:49 s. Great work. I also have been following Bray Fals' project. In Belgium we also have sh...t weather for 9 months now (yess, 9 months). What set-up do you have at Starfront ?

How do you remote connect? Does it take a long time to transfer all the files?

I see you can send smart telescopes too..wonder how that experience is. I know Seestar you cannot remote start it etc...thanks for the clip.

What about security?

Ahh im in the lakes region New Hampshire. Purchased a 6se 1.5 months ago and have been ab le to use it 5 or so times! This humid cloudiness needs to go!

How starlink kills astrofoto? . How many pictures are whit trails how % cant use to make photo? Thanks

Our night sky in northern Maine this spring/summer has been bad. Is the sky clear? Moon is out. Is there no Moon? Clouds.

Can I have a Dobsonian there 😂?

Use a HEPA filtered shop vac when drilling!

How do you get ethernet in the middle of nowhere?

Are you not afraid that it will be stolen from criminals? All these stuffs together is more than 100K I think

They don’t post seeing data

I like the idea but wouldn't want my expensive astro gear uncovered in there while they are drilling into concrete for all of those remaining piers. A no go for me, I guess you get what you pay for. Please invest in a HEPA shop vac to keep the concrete dust from getting into the existing astro gear while you drill.

I likethe idea but I don't think the prices are right. This is of course subjective and will vary from astronomer to astronomer, but $2400 / year is the cost of some small setups or the price of one nice piece of equipment. True that between astronomers we also joke that having a good sky is the last equipment to optimize.. so I perfectly understand why this observatory :) In terms of price, I would probably change the model a bit, possibly paying more for the setup of the equipment and then have a decreasing price over time. That would make more sense to me than a flat $200. The second aspect that bothers me a bit more.. is that we are losing the connexion to the sky when imaging remotely. Remember all those long nights outside in the cold ? I am sure you do and as I, you probably love them as much as you hate them. But if you are losing that essential component of astronomy, then how is it different from a service like telescope live ? To do a comparison, it feels like sending servers to a data center vs using the cloud.. except maybe for those who have extremely custom setup that couldn't be reproduced otherwise, but I don't think that's the majority. In short, I am of course tempted and curious.. but currently too expensive + fear of losing the connexion to the nightsky. Happy if you all prove me wrong however !

Your first question was not answered, "what are the disadvantages of remote imaging?" I'm sure I know the answer but I wanted to see what they think

No I would not pay 200/month for that sky. My backyard is bortel 4. With todays filters I am just fine.

no! I would not pay any amount for remote imaging services. That's taking out 80% of the effort from the whole process. I would not be able to call any images from there mine. Think of it this way... go process hubble data. Can you call that "your work"? Clearly not.

I do not like remote telescopes to be fair, you miss the whole hobby, watching the stars while you are shooting. And so much more, was it pain or not its part of the hobby, automated is not (especially if you are doing it inside.)

This folks is what capitalism represents.