Soliciting experience / opinions on sharing a remotely hosted telescope

Dark Site Remote Astrophotography Collaboration
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John Tucker avatar
John Tucker avatar

I’m giving some preliminary thought to placing a Sharpstar EDPHIII (360 mm focal length) scope out at a remote site such as Starfront, probably sitting on a yet-to-be-purchased ZWO AM3 or AM3N mount. Given the upfront costs of buying the mount and various nice-to-have-at-a-remote-site doodads such as a Deep Sky Dad flat panel and maybe a camera rotator, I was thinking of sharing access on a fee basis, perhaps on an even/odd day basis.

More specifically, I think this would probably have to be with a single partner who put up a few months fees in advance so that I am not endlessly subjected to people who just want to “try it out” for one month before deciding to get their own pier.

Since my wife doesn’t do astrophotography, I thought I’d post here and see if people have any experience or thoughts on the pitfalls of such an approach.

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Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar

At the end of the day you can’t control what others decide to do. If it were me, I’d would only want to do this with someone I know well. I’d also be sure that if the partner pulled out it wouldn’t be a problem going on my own. Lastly, I’d check and see if the remote host has any rules about subletting or group use,

Steven Lohr avatar
Steven Lohr avatar

I’m a Starfront customer. While the upfront cost of my system were fairly significant (approximately $5K), I have found that I am using the system almost every night, and every “no moon” night. I’m not sure I would want to or could share time. Given the number of targets that your system is capable of imaging and the time (15+ hours/target) necessary, you are not in danger of running out of targets for several years.

If money is an issue, it is also possible to set up a “bare bones” system at Starfront, and then add upgrades. For instance after initially purchasing and installing my system, I added a filter wheel and filters two months later, after the credit card had cooled down a bit. If you do need to share, then I would echo Tony’s comment, and do so only with someone you know and trust. Possibly a member of your local astronomy club?

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Scott Badger avatar
Scott Badger avatar

I’ve been thinking about a shared remote rig as well, but even though I live in NH, I’m not really looking for more data, at least not in the sense of more targets; I enjoy taking my time processing and what I get at home keeps me going. At a very (and very infrequent) best of 2.5+” seeing, though, better data would be nice…..

I also enjoy imaging, like actually being outside under the stars — even if it means getting out of bed at 3am and -5F out. So, if I were to do something remote, I think I would get a similar scope (FL at least) and use it to gather luminance (while still doing R,G, and B at home) for better resolution and a bit more integration time for all. Some new targets I’m too north for would be nice too.

My thoughts for a ‘contract’ are:
- shared ownership of gear and rent, whether splitting the cost of new gear/site, or one person buying into another’s. For me it would be important to have ownership, but given the fluky nature of astrogear, I definitely wouldn’t want to have sole responsibility for keeping it in perfect working order!….
- a specified depreciation of x% a year on the gear so that there’s always an agreed upon value.
- if one of the partners wants out, the other partner(s) have the option of buying the share of gear at the value above, or can choose to also sell and whatever it sells for is split equally.

Where I think it get’s a bit more difficult is how to resolve support issues (when to call in/pay for technical support) and gear replacements/upgrades.

Anyhow, never having done it before, I don’t know if that makes any sense, but would be great to hear from those with experience sharing.

Cheers,
Scott

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John Hayes avatar
John Hayes avatar

Sharing a scope to mitigate the costs isn’t an inherently bad idea. The trick is to find someone who is compatible with your goals and that might be easier than you think. Just arrange a phone interview and spend some time talking about what you want to do, your expectations, how you want to go about sharing the costs and data. You might find that having a partner will diversify your target choices and if you agree to share the data, you’ll each wind up with plenty of processing opportunities. The other thing to discuss is how to dissolve the partnership if things don’t work out. I personally believe it putting all of this stuff in writing up front just to be sure that everything is clearly laid out should there be any disagreement—and that’s a good thing for both partners.

I’ve purchased some moderately expensive gear from other imagers who I didn’t know and I’ve sold a lot of high-end astro-gear including two complete remote imaging systems and in my experience, most folks in this hobby are honest and share similar goals so it shouldn’t be that hard to find a good partner.

- John

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John Tucker avatar
John Tucker avatar

John Hayes · Feb 2, 2026, 07:09 PM

Sharing a scope to mitigate the costs isn’t an inherently bad idea. The trick is to find someone who is compatible with your goals and that might be easier than you think. Just arrange a phone interview and spend some time talking about what you want to do, your expectations, how you want to go about sharing the costs and data. You might find that having a partner will diversify your target choices and if you agree to share the data, you’ll each wind up with plenty of processing opportunities. The other thing to discuss is how to dissolve the partnership if things don’t work out. I personally believe it putting all of this stuff in writing up front just to be sure that everything is clearly laid out should there be any disagreement—and that’s a good thing for both partners.

I’ve purchased some moderately expensive gear from other imagers who I didn’t know and I’ve sold a lot of high-end astro-gear including two complete remote imaging systems and in my experience, most folks in this hobby are honest and share similar goals so it shouldn’t be that hard to find a good partner.

- John

Thanks. Still trying to figure out the best model for this. I’m leaning toward a carefully selected “tenant” rather than a “co-owner” for much the same reasons that I would rent to someone I don’t know well than share ownership of a house. The tenant-landlord model is just easier to negotiate.

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