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Remote observatory

Remote Astrophotography Collaboration
Yorkshire Astro Imaging •7 replies•44 views
Des McMorrow avatar
Des McMorrow avatar
Greetings.

i’ve been musing about setting up a remote system at one of the hosted sites in Spain or possibly further afield.

My current preference would be a dual rig system with two refractors, one 5’’/900mm and a wide field one 2’’/250mm. Both would have 2600mm cameras with the usual filters, and the system would be controlled by Nina which enables synchronised dithering I believe. Estimated setup cost £30k+ including a high end mount eg paramount myt. Annual running costs around £5k.

Now I might press ahead with this plan on my own but it occurs to me that it might be more fun all round - call me an optimist - if there was a small group of people to share the adventure with. Sharing the cost would also help.

For any such consortium it would also help to be able to meet in person from time to time, most especially during the planning and procurement, but beyond those phases as well.

Anyway, I thought I would share these musings with you and look forward to receiving any feedback.

cheers, Des
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James Clark avatar
James Clark avatar
I’m exploring with remoteobservatory.com at the moment.   I like their flexibility- no setup cost and running cost (admittedly for single rig) is under £5k and can do monthly. 

Best for me is no need to use NINA which I’ve always struggled with. 

Good luck with your idea though, given the Yorkshire skies these last few months it seems a good ide
Des McMorrow avatar
Des McMorrow avatar
James Clark:
I’m exploring with remoteobservatory.com at the moment.   I like their flexibility- no setup cost and running cost (admittedly for single rig) is under £5k and can do monthly. 

Best for me is no need to use NINA which I’ve always struggled with. 

Good luck with your idea though, given the Yorkshire skies these last few months it seems a good ide



Thanks, James, I’ll check out the link.

Roboscopes is another possibility - they offer ready made consortia which one can join. This has tempted me in the past.
Well Written
urmymuse avatar
urmymuse avatar
Hi Des!

The clouds have been getting me down too lol 

I have an account with Itelescope but havent really used it since I moved on from DSLR so have quite few points saved up so I should think about using that before anything more exciting 

Southern spain would be good place to think about - plenty of clear nights down there , more southern targets easlily seen but you can get to it physically relatively easily 

Once I have retired I was thinking of spending a month or so out there each year (rent some where) and take all my rigs out which I can just about do whilst still leaving space in the car for Mrs urmymuse smile That would give enough data for months of processing fun 

The annual running cost of your plan doesnt sound too bad especially if shared across a few people , I am guessing the capital investment could be reduced if some existing kit was used but still a fair amount of cash 

If you had a shared resource like that whats your thought on agreeing what targets to do , or agreeing time allocation etc etc ?
James Clark avatar
James Clark avatar
Can’t mrs urmymuse fly?  More room for astro gear then? 🤣
urmymuse avatar
urmymuse avatar
James Clark:
Can’t mrs urmymuse fly?  More room for astro gear then? 🤣

Ha! creative thinking !
Des McMorrow avatar
Des McMorrow avatar
Hi Des!

The clouds have been getting me down too lol 

I have an account with Itelescope but havent really used it since I moved on from DSLR so have quite few points saved up so I should think about using that before anything more exciting 

Southern spain would be good place to think about - plenty of clear nights down there , more southern targets easlily seen but you can get to it physically relatively easily 

Once I have retired I was thinking of spending a month or so out there each year (rent some where) and take all my rigs out which I can just about do whilst still leaving space in the car for Mrs urmymuse That would give enough data for months of processing fun 

The annual running cost of your plan doesnt sound too bad especially if shared across a few people , I am guessing the capital investment could be reduced if some existing kit was used but still a fair amount of cash 

If you had a shared resource like that whats your thought on agreeing what targets to do , or agreeing time allocation etc etc ?



Great minds think alike.
Where in southern Spain would be a good place to be based? I retired at the end of last year and had the same idea of renting during the winter for a month or so. 

Not thought about how to share the time. Would hope to keep it simple and informal but that’s me being an optimist! Best run by some hard arsed lawyer instead!
urmymuse avatar
urmymuse avatar
I've been out to a little place called Ermita Nueva , near Alcala la Real a couple of times (45 mins north of Granada)  ... Skies Bortle 4 , 300 clear nights , about 1000m above sea level a year plus plenty of places to go to during the day - both times in September , cause alot farther south than leeds winter targets available in the early morning whilst summer targets still available at the start of the night. 

Itelescopes spanish place is at  - Nerpio ; Latitude: 38° 9' 56.00" North ; Longitude: 2° 19' 34.80" West ; Elevation: 1650m ; MPC Code: I89 ; Timezone: UTC +1:00 - am guessing thats bortle 2