Frequently asked questions

Our commitment to providing a world class remote telescope hosting experience to customers at the lowest possible price drives everything we do. We win by providing unmatched value to our customers, and we want to make remote telescoping accessible to more people than ever before!

A core part of our mission is to broaden the audience base of amateur astronomers and astrophotographers. To make dark sky remote imaging something almost anyone can experience! So we're doing our best to offer the lowest pricing that we can to our customers.

We've recently introduced our Mini pier, which is only $149 per month to rent the pier! While we do not accommodate motorized flat panels (sky flats are the solution!), piggyback systems or side-by-sides for these Mini piers as the point of this pier tier is to drive the price as low as possible for customers, you get the same excellent customer service, the same amazing community, and the same dark skies!

For those with a dusty telescope sitting in the closet, you can ship that out to our remote telescoping observatory so that we can get it installed and operational for you to control remotely. Simply rent a pier (pier tier depends on the size of your telescope, but check out our reference list on the "Determine your pier type" link located at the top of our website!), and your telescope will now be available to use on any clear night. When skies are clear, our automated roofs will roll off our observatories, granting your telescope remote access to some of the darkest skies in the world, all from the comfort of your home!

Our refundable deposit simply secures your pier at our remote telescoping observatory (since there are limited spaces). It is refundable (less 5% for transactions costs) at any time, no questions asked. It also serves as the installation fee when your telescope is installed.

The primary cost is the monthly pier rental fee, which starts at as low as $149 for a Mini pier. Your reservation deposit already covers the installation fee (for a single telescope). That’s enough to get started!

Beyond the recurring monthly pier rental fee, you will be billed for any advanced tech support ($50/hour) or accessories (e.g., Kasa smart plugs, USD cables) purchased from Starfront.

Two simple options: 1) Depending on the size of the scope, you can either piggyback on to your main telescope for an additional fee of $100 / month or 2) you can rent a separate pier. Please note the install fee will increase with the number of telescopes you’d like installed (e.g., two telescopes on a Lite pier would be $199 * 2 = $398).

We treat piggyback and side-by-side systems the same (+$100 / month for each additional telescope). Adding an extra scope is additional work, not just initially for installation, but also for ongoing maintenance and support. Additionally, it consumes more communal resources (e.g., bandwidth).

Our remote telescoping facility is fully gated, secured with video surveillance across the premises, and manned 24/7 by Starfront personnel (our on-site technicians!).

We understand that shipping us your precious equipment can be nerve-wracking! At Starfront, we take every precaution to protect our customer equipment and our facilities from weather events. This includes weather automation systems, backups/redundancies to those systems, conservative weather triggers for roof closure, hurrican-proofing our buildings in construction, backup battery power to close roof systems, etc. Lastly, we have on-site personnel who can manually close the roofs if all else fails.

That being said, the ultimate responsibility for insuring customer equipment lies with the customer. That is precisely why, while we don't require customers insure their equipment, we highly recommend they do in order to financially protect their equipment in the outlier case where all of our reasonable (and beyond) measures to protect from weather ultimately ends up failing.

Many of our customers have easily and affordably insured their equipment through both adding riders to their existing Homeowner/Renter insurance or new standalone Personal Articles policies. If you are looking for a new standalone policy, we recommend a local State Farm agent, Maliah Matteucci (maliah@mikehallinsurance.com), who has successfully helped a number of our existing customers already. Be sure to mention you're a customer at Starfront Observatories, and be ready to provide the following information: driver license, item name and/or number, purchase price, purchase date, serial numbers, and receipts for any items over $2,000.

We have Starfront technicians on-site 24/7 (with decades of experience managing telescope systems of all types and sizes) who can help with any basic or advanced technical support for your telescope, usually within a 24 hour timeframe.

We don’t charge for quick basic support you may need (e.g., taking a lens cap on/off during our monthly scheduled time), and our advanced technical support (from collimation to tip tilt and beyond) is available at $50 / hour.

Our UPS / FedEx shipping address is:

[Customer Name]
c/o Starfront Observatories
1724 County Road 244
Rockwood, TX 76873

Please make sure that your name (not those of Starfront staff) is visible from the outside of your box, whether that's on the shipping label or on the actual box itself. We do not open customer boxes until it's his/her turn to be installed so please make sure your name is visible and easily identifiable (same name as on the reservation deposit)!

We highly recommend using UPS or FedEx as they have been the most reliable vendor so far in delivering to our very remote location (daily deliveries at this point). Additionally, they provide shipping insurance options, which we highly recommend as damage during shipping, though very rare, is not impossible.

We provide the pier, pier adapter, an ethernet connection, and an AC outlet power connection. You need to send the rest, which amounts to:

Imaging essentials, such as:
-Imaging camera
-Telescope
-Mount
-Guide scope or OAG (off-axis guider)
-Guide camera
-Computer

This also means the peripherals required to make that stuff work, such as:

-USB cables
-Power supplies
-Web power strip Ethernet switch (if using multiple network devices)
-Ethernet cables

Mounting essentials:
-Polar alignment pins (the ones on your tripod) so we can attach them to our pier plate
-Tripod flange screws (commonly 3x M6 bolts on AM3/AM5 mounts)
-Pier adapters for oddball mounts (GM1000HPS, CGX)

When you ship, label your items with your name. There is no such thing as overlabeling! If you have a photo of your setup, or anything special required in the installation, please also send this digitally or printed with your gear.This will help us do the installation exactly as required.

Once the system is here on site, we will install it and cable manage it ourselves. So there is no need to send any zip-ties.

Alsoplease include an itemized list of the gear you are shippinghere as this will help us verify your item inventory as they arrive.

You should not send us tripods, tripod adapter flanges, or pier extensions.

IMPORTANT: The only exception is for any mount screws used to bolt your mount to our custom-machined plate. Please don't forget to send us the mount screws!

For instance, an AM5 mount’s bottom bolt screws are part of the adapter flanges so please send us those screws as this is one of most common reasons for delays in installing your gear!

Firstly, the most important thing to note is that you should always insure the shipment of your telescope system. Accidents are rare but not impossible. Knowing this, it is also good to familiarize yourself with UPS packaging standards, because if you poorly pack your system and it breaks, it is on you. Alternatively, you can take your gear to UPS and ask them to pack it for you, in which case any damage to your insured equipment will be on UPS!

Some special things to note when packaging:
-Uninstall ZWO EAF or similar from your OTA before shipping.
-Uninstall any USB from their ports before shupping.
-Do not leave flat panels installed before shipping.
-Uninstall your camera from your OTA before shipping.
-Pack your counterweights (or any weighty items) separately from the rest of your gear as they are the most likely to damage your equipment.
-When shipping a German equatorial mount, leave the gears (or clutches) disengaged, so that loads cannot be transferred to the gear teeth.
-For SCT telescopes, lock your primary mirror locks down to prevent a mirror flop.
-Also for SCT, make sure your secondary mirror screws are not loose, tighten them securely! We can collimate the scope later!
-If you still have your included boxes or carrying cases, these are an easy way to ship gear. Please keep in mind, that we do not store boxes or cases here. If you send us a hard case and want it back, you need to provide a return label for us to return the case to you.
- Install your lens caps and covers before shipping. This protects your gear and keeps your optics clean.
-If you are covering up any surfaces with tape, painter's tape is best because it doesn’t leave any residue on your gear.

In general, when you pack equipment, it is a good idea to give your equipment a healthy layer of bubble wrap to prevent dents, and then surround it with padding material (peanuts, newspaper, airbags, etc) to protect against jolts or drops.

ANYTHING left on the OTA which sticks out is subject to higher damage risk. EFWs, EAFs, flat panels, anything 3d printed. Please uninstall these and pack them separately to keep them safe.

It is also a good idea to grab a couple of quick pictures of the packages before they are shipped. We also take pictures of packages as they arrive. This way if there are any issues, you have proof of the package condition prior to shipment.

We are looking forward to getting your equipment installed here in your new dark sky location at Starfront!

We always recommend customers get shipping insurance whenever possible. Damage to equipment during shipping is rare, but do happen. Starfront does not accept any liability for any damage to customer equipment in transit. Starfront is not liable for any shipping related damages to customer equipment.

If your equipment is damaged during shipment to our facilities, we will work with you to document pictures and details to help file your insurance claims.

Yes, customers can send their EQ6R/EQ5/Sirius mounts. However, because these mounts have a single bolt on the bottom that requires a special custom two tier pier plate, it will cost an extra one-time fee of $99 for us to manufacture that plate for you. We do not accommodate pier adapter from 3rd parties unless explicitly approved in advance on a case-by-case basis by Starfront staff.

Unfortunately, we do not accept Celestron (CGX, AVX) mounts at Starfront due to material software (CPWI) instability and mechanical issues that make remote imaging difficult. Without extreme vigilance around mount homing, our concern is that customers may inadvertently damage their equipment. Other non-homing mounts like the EQ6/EQ5 etc are still suitable for remote imaging, because their software performs better.

For those planning to send us CGX/AVX or any other Celestron mounts, we understand that this complicate your plans, but we truly believe that a different mount will result in a much better experience for the customer. If you have a small telescope, such as a refractor ranging from 60-110mm, the ZWO AM5 is a suitable option. If you have a larger scope, or want a bit more stability, the iOptron GEM45 or CEM70 are suitable replacements for remote imaging.

We strive to meet customers where they are in terms of their equipment. But, at the same time, we also want you to be successful here at the observatory, and we believe this is an important measure to enforce to ensure that your remote imaging experience is the best it can be!

We do recommend that customers try to test out their equipment before shipping out to us, simply because it will make for the easiest and quickest experience for the customer to start imaging after installation.

That said, our technicians usually have no problem setting up completely new systems (for instance our Mini pier turnkey system from High Point Scientific). For untested systems with complex diagnostic issues, customers can utilize our advanced tech support ($50/hr) to get your system dialed to your liking!

Yes, please include a 30 ft ethernet cable with your shipment. Alternatively, we also keep ethernet cables in stock, which customers can purchase.