The time cost of light pollution
How many hours it takes under your sky to match one hour under a Bortle 1 sky.
The dollar cost of chasing dark skies
What traveling to a dark site really costs per hour of imaging, compared to remote hosting.
Traveling to dark skies
$0/imaging hr
$0/yr · ~0 hrs/yr
Remote at Bortle 1
$0/imaging hr
$0/yr · ~1,500 hrs/yr
77 years
of your clear nights to match one year of remote imaging
Remote hosting works out to about
33× cheaper
per hour of imaging — and you never leave the house
Log scale. Each magnitude of skyglow means ~2.5× more background photons, so matching signal-to-noise takes ~2.5× longer. Assumes broadband imaging, ~5 imaging hours per clear night at home, and ~1,500 hours per year on a remote rig.
Assumes $0.70/mile and ~6 imaging hours per clear trip night. Remote based on ~220 clear nights per year at ~7 hours each. Gear wear, meals, and vacation days not included.
Ein Vergleich mit der realen Welt
Hier sind zwei Bilder, die bei starker Lichtverschmutzung in Abilene, Texas, und vom Observatorium am selben Abend aufgenommen wurden. Der Unterschied ist wie Tag und Nacht!
Bortle 9
Bortle 1
Free raw datasets
Don't take our word for it.
Edit our sky yourself.
Download real, unedited data straight off our telescopes — shot under Bortle 1 skies — and process it with your own workflow. See exactly what your images could look like.
65 Std. Ha-Oiii-RGB-Belichtungszeit, aufgenommen mit einer FSQ106 und ASI6200mm
111 Std. Ha-RGB-Belichtungszeit, aufgenommen mit einer FSQ106 und einer ASI6200mm
6,5 Std. RGB-Belichtungszeit, aufgenommen mit einer VSD100 f/3 und einer ASI6200mm
The sky is waiting
Your telescope belongs here.
Rent a scope tonight, or ship us yours and image from the darkest skies in Texas — every clear night, without leaving home.
