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.
A Real World Comparison
Here are two images captured from heavy light pollution in Abilene Texas, and from the observatory on the same evening. The difference is night and day!
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.
65hrs of Ha-Oiii-RGB exposure, captured with a FSQ106 and ASI6200mm
111hrs of Ha-RGB exposure, captured with an FSQ106 and ASI6200mm
6.5hrs RGB exposure, captured with a VSD100 f/3 and 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.
