Remote imaging - Slooh vs Insight - Roboscopes - iTelescope

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Ben Cartwright SASS
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Remote imaging - Slooh vs Insight - Roboscopes - iTelescope

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Post by Ben Cartwright SASS »


Thoughts on a Sunday afternoon while watching NASCAR.
At my home observatory "Little Bear Solar Observatory" (formerly Bright Skys Observatory) I do probably 95% solar imaging due to my skies and tree cover. I get 2 hours a day with the sun.
Why did I decide to investigate remote imaging with subscription/membership observatories? Friends have asked that since I have a Stellarvue SV80 APO, Skywatcher Evostar 120ED, Orion 127 Mak and a Celestron Edge 8HD, and a couple more and a Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro. Really all the gear I need for the darkside. But there are several reasons. First are my Bortle 7.5 skies (often 8's) then there is the fact that as I get older I find that my 9 pm I am dogged (get up at 6 am every day) and I like my sleep. Also don't like the cold and for 7-8 months of the year it is cold at night. Another big thing is my tree cover, I get about 30 degrees at the zenith, and on the ecliptic I set 20 degrees S to SW and about 50 degrees S to SE, also get about 60 degrees from N to NW. At least I can see the sky...

I decided to investigate remote scopes including SLOOH, iTelescopes, Roboscopes, and Insight. Most of the sites are expensive, especially for someone on Social Security. I tried a couple imaging runs on Roboscopes and 3 or 4 on Insight and with Insight you can download others imaging runs for $15-$30+ per data set. I looked at SLOOH and it's price, tried their bottom level just for the heck of it then got the "Apprentice Level" $100 and after a few days upgraded to the Astronomer Level ($300).

One thing I have found is that imaging time and the number of subs makes a difference, just like in the backyard.

The remote observatories, not SLOOH, get great results and you can get really great images. I usually see people have done 4 or 5 or 8 hours or more to get their data for the images. With any of the observatories you should get great results.

Now on to SLOOH, where I decided to hang out. SLOOH calls their imaging runs "missions" and they are normally 5 minutes, except for the 20" Planewave which uses 10 minute missions. Slooh is also limited to either L,R,G,B or L's only missions. Not a lot of options as opposed to the other sites.
I find that Slooh falls between backyard imaging and the expensive sites. It takes a lot more work, at least to my mind, to get enough data for good results. I keep trying to get some images with 4 or more hours of data. With the Astronomer level I can book 5 imaging runs at a time, that is 25 minutes on most scopes, or 50 minutes on the 20. Once you use a mission or run, you can book another one for unlimited missions during the year.
Another difference or it seems so to me, the other sites only give you good data, I didn't see oblong stars due to wind, soft spots due to clouds, satellite trails etc. On Slooh you get the raw but calibrated data and it is raw, it can be affected by moonlight, dust, clouds, satellites, planes etc. Just like with a home setup you have to cull through your data and delete the poor data and keep the good data. some of the scopes are susceptible to the wind and oblong stars. But I find all this a challenge, like it is my own gear! If I wanted to only process and not worry about the quality of the subs I would use the Hubble downloads or the other remote imaging sites. or download images from the net.

With Slooh I have to schedule the mission and can actually watch it live as the scope captures the images and then have to carefully check over the data for the best quality.

To me it really falls between imaging at home and the expensive sites.
C31 IC405 PSCC-1.jpg
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