Great work Bray and team! I remember a few years ago Dylan O donnel did a video about astro-photographer styles and he said to watch Bray falls because the work was technically brilliant. I've been following your work ever since and wow it's been a fantastic journey.
Having a scope at Star Front has been my best experience in this wonderful hobby. I just love when the weather in Miami is cloudy, its usually super clear and dark at Star Front.
I've only been doing AP for about a year and a half now, I still love rigging up a scope (two now actually!) before heading to a dark spot, I really enjoy getting my hands on the gear as part of the whole experience. BUT, as soon as that starts to wear off, I WILL have a scope sent down there, access to so many bortle 1 nights is the dream :D
Same thing here: going to a dark spot setting up the scope is about half the fun, even after 5 years of astrophotography. For me, the problem is that I live in a city in North Western Europe, and the weather has been so bad recently that we have had about a dozen usable nights in the last year. So I just reserved a pier, and my old AM5 is bound for a trip to sunny Texas, together with a scope setup I am currently building.
I enjoy the process, too, but I think setting up a rig that could be fully operated remotely would also be a lot of fun. My dream set up would be a larger rig at the remote site and a smaller rig that I can still set up at home or transport to sites within a few hours' drive.
I enjoy the hands-on experience as well. After 5 years, though, setting up and tearing down started feeling like a chore, especially polar alignment. I looked into remote observatory hosting. Dark Sky New Mexico's just a couple hours from where I live, but $600/month with $1200 due at signing is unreasonable given that my rig's so small (Z61, AM5). StarFront knocked it out of the park by setting their pricing based on your scope's swing diameter. I'm leasing a mini pier at just $149/month. They do the same thing Dark Sky NM does where you initially pay twice the amount--I paid $149 upfront which reserves your pier and covers initial install, then I made my first month's payment after initial installation was done. That's still a steal compared to what other remote observatories are charging. What I'm curious to see is where this budding industry goes from here. I think Bray and the guys set a great precedent with their pricing model, and I wouldn't be surprised if other remote observatories started adopting it or something similar.
Great progress on the new buildings! Could you maybe explain how the whole data infrastructure works? I mean with almost 200 customers you must have a beefy connection. CS
Thanks for the update. It is an absolutely stunning project. As I was watching it, a couple of idea popped up: 1) with some much equipment, you have a lot of data, it would be cool, to make a platform to organize some projects, where several people could cooperate on a project, or another option to sell their data, or rent their gear to others. 2) would be interesting to collect some statistics about gears, maybe how often do they need to be serviced, repaired, and so on 3) if you have so many gear, and even more to come, maybe it would be interesting to make a marketplace, where people could trade, exchange their gear 4) maybe it would make sense to offer to sell/resell gear, you could maybe get some discount from big resellers if you e.g. buy several stuff together e.g. AM5 mounts. I was just thinking loudly :-)
Regarding your first idea, that's already being done on their Discord server. There's a customer-only channel where we choose a target to collectively image and I think Bray handles post.
Can you hear much noise on a clear night inside one of those full buildings? 50+ scopes with focusers, focus wheels, mounts, etc. must make some noise! 🙂
So revenues have easily surpassed $1'000'000 annually I would guess Bray? You're building an empire here Bray, just imagine your revenues in 5-10 years time!? Incredible!
Looks like your project is growing, great install and many Astro nerds sharing experiences, because is Texas I have just one question about weather, the buildings can support extreme weather? Or what kind of insurance policies are available to avoid loss of the equipment.
Yes these buildings can take a serious thunderstorm, they have been through several. Customers can also insure their equipment if they like, there is a local person here in texas that provides policies for telescope gear.
Amazing and beautiful, but aren’t you worried about tornados and other dramatic weather that could wipe out a whole building? How is insurance handled? Does the renter have full responsibility?
For those without flat panels: Sky flats and open a support ticket to have a lens cap installed for dark frames. Also open support ticket if you want optics cleaned.
I love how the first couple of buildings are now "the old buildings", even though they haven't even been operational for six months yet! Congratulations, guys! BTW - what was wrong with the sky when you shot this video? Was it broken or something? 😜
Looking good, can I ask it seems a real remote spot, (excuse the pun) so how does insurance work for people overseas, does that come included in the price, or is it up to individuals to sort there own, and how would that work for overseas people..?
Hi Bray, this is AWSOME!! How many scopes do you have there??? One question, I noticed that many scopes don't have a remote cover on them, isn't that a problem??
YAY! I caught a glimpse of my RASA in building four.
send off your first eq mount i c :)
190 scopes in just 5 months ! Good job and many more to come !
Great work Bray and team! I remember a few years ago Dylan O donnel did a video about astro-photographer styles and he said to watch Bray falls because the work was technically brilliant. I've been following your work ever since and wow it's been a fantastic journey.
Having a scope at Star Front has been my best experience in this wonderful hobby. I just love when the weather in Miami is cloudy, its usually super clear and dark at Star Front.
Awesome Bray and Team. Enjoying Building 4 so far. So much easier than at home.
You guys are doing amazing work! I hope you guys build 20 more buildings 😊
Outstanding Bray! Thank you for all your hard work that out their and on all your video's!!
Those scopes in building 5!! 😎🔭
I've only been doing AP for about a year and a half now, I still love rigging up a scope (two now actually!) before heading to a dark spot, I really enjoy getting my hands on the gear as part of the whole experience. BUT, as soon as that starts to wear off, I WILL have a scope sent down there, access to so many bortle 1 nights is the dream :D
Same thing here: going to a dark spot setting up the scope is about half the fun, even after 5 years of astrophotography. For me, the problem is that I live in a city in North Western Europe, and the weather has been so bad recently that we have had about a dozen usable nights in the last year. So I just reserved a pier, and my old AM5 is bound for a trip to sunny Texas, together with a scope setup I am currently building.
I enjoy the process, too, but I think setting up a rig that could be fully operated remotely would also be a lot of fun. My dream set up would be a larger rig at the remote site and a smaller rig that I can still set up at home or transport to sites within a few hours' drive.
I enjoy the hands-on experience as well. After 5 years, though, setting up and tearing down started feeling like a chore, especially polar alignment. I looked into remote observatory hosting. Dark Sky New Mexico's just a couple hours from where I live, but $600/month with $1200 due at signing is unreasonable given that my rig's so small (Z61, AM5). StarFront knocked it out of the park by setting their pricing based on your scope's swing diameter. I'm leasing a mini pier at just $149/month.
They do the same thing Dark Sky NM does where you initially pay twice the amount--I paid $149 upfront which reserves your pier and covers initial install, then I made my first month's payment after initial installation was done. That's still a steal compared to what other remote observatories are charging. What I'm curious to see is where this budding industry goes from here. I think Bray and the guys set a great precedent with their pricing model, and I wouldn't be surprised if other remote observatories started adopting it or something similar.
Insane. Fantastic work
Hell yeah, great work.
Great progress on the new buildings! Could you maybe explain how the whole data infrastructure works? I mean with almost 200 customers you must have a beefy connection. CS
Thanks for the update. It is an absolutely stunning project. As I was watching it, a couple of idea popped up: 1) with some much equipment, you have a lot of data, it would be cool, to make a platform to organize some projects, where several people could cooperate on a project, or another option to sell their data, or rent their gear to others. 2) would be interesting to collect some statistics about gears, maybe how often do they need to be serviced, repaired, and so on 3) if you have so many gear, and even more to come, maybe it would be interesting to make a marketplace, where people could trade, exchange their gear 4) maybe it would make sense to offer to sell/resell gear, you could maybe get some discount from big resellers if you e.g. buy several stuff together e.g. AM5 mounts. I was just thinking loudly :-)
Regarding your first idea, that's already being done on their Discord server. There's a customer-only channel where we choose a target to collectively image and I think Bray handles post.
Very tempting. If I had a few friends to partner with it would be a done deal.
I saw my rig at 2:15! Looking good!
Can you hear much noise on a clear night inside one of those full buildings? 50+ scopes with focusers, focus wheels, mounts, etc. must make some noise! 🙂
That is so awesome.
So revenues have easily surpassed $1'000'000 annually I would guess Bray? You're building an empire here Bray, just imagine your revenues in 5-10 years time!? Incredible!
Looks like your project is growing, great install and many Astro nerds sharing experiences, because is Texas I have just one question about weather, the buildings can support extreme weather? Or what kind of insurance policies are available to avoid loss of the equipment.
Yes these buildings can take a serious thunderstorm, they have been through several. Customers can also insure their equipment if they like, there is a local person here in texas that provides policies for telescope gear.
Amazing and beautiful, but aren’t you worried about tornados and other dramatic weather that could wipe out a whole building? How is insurance handled? Does the renter have full responsibility?
Correct. Each customer insurances their own equipment.
nice setup and new constructions, wonder how do you do the calibration frames in the observatory, they either need light source or with the lid on
For those without flat panels: Sky flats and open a support ticket to have a lens cap installed for dark frames. Also open support ticket if you want optics cleaned.
how do u power all those setups 😅😅
I love how the first couple of buildings are now "the old buildings", even though they haven't even been operational for six months yet! Congratulations, guys!
BTW - what was wrong with the sky when you shot this video? Was it broken or something? 😜
I’m curious as to what happens to the shipping containers the equipment arrives in. I hope you store it on site.
You send them a return shipping label for anything you want back after install; otherwise it is discarded.
If I want to swap out a scope, what happens to my older scope, I must get it shipped back to me, right?
Looking good, can I ask it seems a real remote spot, (excuse the pun) so how does insurance work for people overseas, does that come included in the price, or is it up to individuals to sort there own, and how would that work for overseas people..?
Each customer is responsible for their own insurance policy. There is an insurance broker in the nearest town that writes a lot of those policies.
Dude. Nice.
Ha ha small glimpse of my scope in building 4 black and red newtonian 3:16 😅
You mentioned people are replacing the AM5 with something like a 770 could you tell me the manufacturer?
He is referring to iOptron CEM70
Telescope heven.
Do you have any NYX 101 mount setups?
Yes we’ve got one! It does pretty well
@astrofalls wooooow
Hi Bray, this is AWSOME!! How many scopes do you have there???
One question, I noticed that many scopes don't have a remote cover on them, isn't that a problem??
Gimbal would help 🤢