Photograph provided by R. Ligustri using iTelescope.Net
Since 2004, we have led the field in developing public Internet based astronomy.
From a humble start with a single telescope in both California and Australia and just 5 members, we have since expanded the iTelescope network to telescopes around the globe providing digital imaging services to professional and amateur astronomers world wide.
Today iTelescope.Net has over 1,000 active members and we have provided this membership community with over 300,000+ observing missions across 280,000+ imaging hours, current as of December 2017.
HOW IT WORKS
Put simply we allow members of the public to access our telescopes across the Internet. You can book telescope time in advance, or use the telescopes on demand.
Once you log on to the network, you have access to the 'Launchpad' which provides up to date information about the availability of each telescope, day/night map, weather information and All Sky camera images of each observatory, along with your imaging rates for each of the telescopes.
From here you can log on to a telescope directly and immediately start observing, or book a reservation, schedule an observing session to start unattended, and or even make a observing plan for a future sessions.
Once you start observing, the telescope will commence your plan either on demand or at a predefined time. If you wish, you can watch your observing session play-out in real time.
After the observing session is complete, your digital image files (FITS, TIFF, or JPEG) will be automatically transmitted from the telescope to our digital download server, where you can log-on and collect your image files, ready for processing.
For the more technical minded, we also provide image data as pre-calibrated and non-calibrated data sets (Bias, Darks and Flats). We also provide a library of raw calibration data for you to download & process if desired.
We provide an automated refund system. If you are not happy with the quality of your image data, you can simply request a refund for the session in question. This may be because of a wind gust, atmospheric seeing or high cloud may ruined some images.
Our Mission
As a not-for-profit organisation we strive to satisfy by providing high quality research-grade telescope systems and always expanding when possible with more observatories and instruments for our growing community of members. We are a service for astronomers operated by astronomers.
“Depressing weeks of clouds and light pollution at home is no issue any longer - crystal clear and dark skies are just a few clicks away. iTelescope has opened many new doors of potential study that would otherwise not have been realised.”