STARFRONT REMOTE TELESCOPE OBSERVATORY IN TEXAS

REMOTE TELESCOPE OBSERVATORY IN TEXAS

Dr Lilian Hobbs FRAS

Do you dream of imaging from a truly dark-sky location but think that owning and operating a remote telescope is too expensive? Then Lillian Hobbs has some good news for you.

Does this sound familiar? You load up the car for a few nights away under a dark sky, and then you watch as the British weather fails to cooperate and the clouds roll in. Until recently, the only real alternative was to travel overseas to a dark-sky site. Now there is another option: using a remote telescope. Starfront Observatories in Texas, USA, offers a range of imaging plans starting at $99 per month for a Seestar smart telescope, with higher-priced options for full telescope rigs.

While $99 a month (around £72) may sound expensive for a Seestar, consider what you get: roughly 20 clear nights per month under genuinely dark skies, with no light pollution, imaging all night long while you sleep at home. That works out at around £3.50 per session. So how does it work?

At Starfront, you supply the equipment and pay a monthly rental fee. Seestars have a flat rate, while full telescope rigs are priced according to the swing diameter of the setup (they provide guides to help you calculate this). Prices currently range from $149 to $399 per month, which includes initial setup and basic support such as powering devices on and off. Additionalsupport is available at $50 per hour.

Starfront Observatories in Texas, USA, offers a range of imaging plans starting at $99 per month for a Seestar smart telescope

My first experience using a Seestar S30 was extremely positive. I purchased my equipment from Amazon US to avoid tariffs and had it shipped directly to Starfront, although you can also send your own equipment from the UK. To control the Seestar, I used a refurbished Mac mini, a SwitchBot to press the Seestar’s power button if I needed to power cycle it, and a Kasa power strip to switch the components on and off remotely. I submitted an install ticket and just over 2 weeks later I was advised my system was configured and available for use and they sent me the picture shown here. Remote Connection is via AnyDesk which works very well. They maybe in the middle of nowhere, but their wifi speeds are incredibly fast, if it is slow, it is your end.

Community chat

Starfront uses Discord for community chat, where I quickly found a friendly smart-telescope group, including several UK users. It can feel daunting at first, but regular online sessions are run to answer questions, and the wider community is very helpful. I was imaging on the first night, and despite it being close to full Moon, I obtained a 40-minute unprocessed Seestar stack of M21 and M20 that clearly demonstrated the quality of the sky.

Because Texas is six hours behind the UK, I use the Seestar’s plan mode to schedule observations. Then, I leave the system running and retrieve the images around UK lunchtime.

Support has been excellent throughout. After a power outage left my Mac mini unable to restart automatically, a support ticket was resolved the same day, allowing imaging to resume that night.

You do obviously need a method for transferring files back to the UK, such as Google Drive. I use my own cloud service on my NAS drive and then process the images at home.

One big experiment

This was initially a big experiment, as I wasn’t sure how manageable a remote telescope would be, but I was genuinely surprised by how straightforward operating the Seestar proved to be. It is worth noting that the $99 pier currently only supports Seestar smart telescopes, as they can be run from a Mac mini.

Encouraged by this success, my next step was to deploy a full telescope system. I paid $149 to reserve a pier, which is refundable if no equipment is sent. Moving from smart telescopes to a conventional astronomy rig is significantly more complex, requiring full configuration before shipment. For UK users, tariffs add further cost, particularly as VAT has already been paid. While planning to take equipment to the US myself, I discovered that Starfront also operates a marketplace where people trade equipment.

So I purchased a fully operational rig of telescope, mount, cameras and filters, all controlled via the Nighttime Imaging ‘n’ Astronomy (NINA) astrophotography imaging suite. Having a working script from the outset was invaluable. The system is sophisticated, waiting for the roof to open before starting, and automatically shutting down and parking the telescope if conditions change. Alerts are sent to my phone and watch if problems occur. While not ideal when this occurs at 3am, it is reassuring. Both the seller and Starfront were extremely helpful during the transfer, and the community support would have been there had I needed it.

There are, of course, downsides. The main one is cost, but compared with other remote observatory options, prices are competitive. Given the limited number of clear nights in the UK, access to these telescopes has genuinely revitalised my astronomical imaging. Find out more at starfront.space/.

Dr Lilian Hobbs FRAS is a keen amateur astronomer and astrophotographer.