https://skyhound.com/forums/ Sat, 04 Apr 2026 01:20:11 +0000 MyBB https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=3393 Fri, 23 Jan 2026 09:50:21 -0500 Alin Beudean]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=3393
My name is Alin, and I am looking for someone who can help me obtain images of stars. I would like to mention that I do not have experience in astrophotography, which is why I am seeking a complete service using the iTelescope platform.

My list contains 55 stars, most of them with favorable magnitudes. The majority are located in the Northern Hemisphere, but some are in the Southern Hemisphere, which requires access to two different remote telescopes.

If anyone is able to assist me with capturing these images, for a fee, of course, I would be very happy to discuss the details.

Thank you!
Clear skies! 
Alin]]>
My name is Alin, and I am looking for someone who can help me obtain images of stars. I would like to mention that I do not have experience in astrophotography, which is why I am seeking a complete service using the iTelescope platform.

My list contains 55 stars, most of them with favorable magnitudes. The majority are located in the Northern Hemisphere, but some are in the Southern Hemisphere, which requires access to two different remote telescopes.

If anyone is able to assist me with capturing these images, for a fee, of course, I would be very happy to discuss the details.

Thank you!
Clear skies! 
Alin]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=3212 Mon, 02 Dec 2024 12:34:55 -0500 theskyhound]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=3212
I have a full plate these days, between software development, fixing bugs, customer support, tutorial videos, and just running a business. I seem to be reaching my limits. Keeping up with the constant upheaval at iTelescope has become more than I can handle. You may have noticed that I have fallen behind on keeping the ever changing elements of their systems up to date. I feel bad about this, but I also feel bad about the long wait for the new EAA features, and the lack of important new tutorial videos.

It occurred to me recently that crowd sourcing may be the best solution. It would be awesome if we could create a small iTelescope community here, or on our discord, that would work together keep the telescope information up to date. Perhaps each of us could adopt their favorite iTelescope and keep it updated whenever the equipment changes. Keeping track of one or even two iTelescopes is a fairly easy matter, especially if you use them yourself. I can make the process of getting your updates uploaded and shared simple as well.

What do you guys think? Are there enough iTelescope users here that are willing to adopt a telescope or two? 

Perhaps we might also create a small community here to share our images, projects, and techniques.

If you are interested, respond below with your thoughts and maybe volunteer for a telescope.]]>
I have a full plate these days, between software development, fixing bugs, customer support, tutorial videos, and just running a business. I seem to be reaching my limits. Keeping up with the constant upheaval at iTelescope has become more than I can handle. You may have noticed that I have fallen behind on keeping the ever changing elements of their systems up to date. I feel bad about this, but I also feel bad about the long wait for the new EAA features, and the lack of important new tutorial videos.

It occurred to me recently that crowd sourcing may be the best solution. It would be awesome if we could create a small iTelescope community here, or on our discord, that would work together keep the telescope information up to date. Perhaps each of us could adopt their favorite iTelescope and keep it updated whenever the equipment changes. Keeping track of one or even two iTelescopes is a fairly easy matter, especially if you use them yourself. I can make the process of getting your updates uploaded and shared simple as well.

What do you guys think? Are there enough iTelescope users here that are willing to adopt a telescope or two? 

Perhaps we might also create a small community here to share our images, projects, and techniques.

If you are interested, respond below with your thoughts and maybe volunteer for a telescope.]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2789 Tue, 14 Mar 2023 19:37:43 -0400 theskyhound]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2789
We were told that all of the telescopes from New Mexico were carefully cleaned, repaired, and re-calibrated when they were moved to Utah.

I'm doing some work that requires the calibration files, and I was extremely dismayed to discover that for the telescopes I checked: T02, T21, and T11, the most recent calibration files are from 2020.

Not only have these telescopes been moved, and supposedly cleaned, and repaired, but even if they hadn't they should not be using calibration files over a year old, let alone three.

Mind blown.]]>
We were told that all of the telescopes from New Mexico were carefully cleaned, repaired, and re-calibrated when they were moved to Utah.

I'm doing some work that requires the calibration files, and I was extremely dismayed to discover that for the telescopes I checked: T02, T21, and T11, the most recent calibration files are from 2020.

Not only have these telescopes been moved, and supposedly cleaned, and repaired, but even if they hadn't they should not be using calibration files over a year old, let alone three.

Mind blown.]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2788 Tue, 14 Mar 2023 19:26:21 -0400 theskyhound]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2788
I have been doing some analysis on T72, and thought people might be interested in what I have discovered.

1. The telescope description page lists the gain as 6.0 e-/ADU, which appears to be a typo. I measured the gain from calibration images and obtained a gain of 0.69 e-/ADU, which is consistent with the number from the manufacturer as a typical gain setting.

2. I also measured the read noise, which is not listed on the web page. It was quite large: 13.5 e. This camera has two readout modes, and the read noise depends on which mode you have it set to. According to the FITS header the camera is in the 12 Mhz faster readout mode, which typically has a read noise of 11.5 e. The slower readout 3 Mhz mode has much lower read noise associated with it, often as low as 7 e. Switching to the 3 Mhz mode would greatly improve the SNR of the images from this camera, for both science and pretty pictures, but at the expense of longer readout times. I found this camera to be so noisy as to be avoided in the future.

I have passed this information in to iTelescope in the hope that they will switch to the slower read mode. I will have an update to this telescope soon, which will include the accurate gain and read noise values, and also includes a better estimate of the Sky brightness at the telescope location.]]>
I have been doing some analysis on T72, and thought people might be interested in what I have discovered.

1. The telescope description page lists the gain as 6.0 e-/ADU, which appears to be a typo. I measured the gain from calibration images and obtained a gain of 0.69 e-/ADU, which is consistent with the number from the manufacturer as a typical gain setting.

2. I also measured the read noise, which is not listed on the web page. It was quite large: 13.5 e. This camera has two readout modes, and the read noise depends on which mode you have it set to. According to the FITS header the camera is in the 12 Mhz faster readout mode, which typically has a read noise of 11.5 e. The slower readout 3 Mhz mode has much lower read noise associated with it, often as low as 7 e. Switching to the 3 Mhz mode would greatly improve the SNR of the images from this camera, for both science and pretty pictures, but at the expense of longer readout times. I found this camera to be so noisy as to be avoided in the future.

I have passed this information in to iTelescope in the hope that they will switch to the slower read mode. I will have an update to this telescope soon, which will include the accurate gain and read noise values, and also includes a better estimate of the Sky brightness at the telescope location.]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2761 Tue, 14 Feb 2023 16:08:59 -0500 theskyhound]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2761
I asked iTelescope support which of their telescopes had mounts that could track something like a comet. The answer surprised me. They said that they had very recently discovered a bug that was causing all telescopes on Paramounts to be unable to track at orbital rates. They are currently working on it. They had hoped to have T02 fixed, but I tested it it early this morning and it failed to track an asteroid.]]>
I asked iTelescope support which of their telescopes had mounts that could track something like a comet. The answer surprised me. They said that they had very recently discovered a bug that was causing all telescopes on Paramounts to be unable to track at orbital rates. They are currently working on it. They had hoped to have T02 fixed, but I tested it it early this morning and it failed to track an asteroid.]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2756 Thu, 09 Feb 2023 22:49:55 -0500 theskyhound]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2756
Tonight I had something like one and a half hours scheduled that I had more or less given up on. But I got an email saying that my session had been started successfully! I logged in to see what was going on and found the telescope disconnected.

It had been a bit since my reservation had started, but I didn't have any images to download nor were there any log files. But I did think to see if there was preview image on the system, and there was! This was the only evidence I could find of my reservation.


  previewSmall.jpg (Size: 821.79 KB / Downloads: 11)

Oh what might have been...]]>
Tonight I had something like one and a half hours scheduled that I had more or less given up on. But I got an email saying that my session had been started successfully! I logged in to see what was going on and found the telescope disconnected.

It had been a bit since my reservation had started, but I didn't have any images to download nor were there any log files. But I did think to see if there was preview image on the system, and there was! This was the only evidence I could find of my reservation.


  previewSmall.jpg (Size: 821.79 KB / Downloads: 11)

Oh what might have been...]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2738 Wed, 25 Jan 2023 12:55:04 -0500 theskyhound]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2738
I very much wish iTelescope to prove me wrong in my prediction that these telescopes will be a mess for some time to come. I don't have time to try them all right now, so if anyone uses them, please let me know how it goes. I will be releasing revised imaging systems in a week or so, and after that I'll have to spend some time with each one to get some better calibrations and to ensure that all of the equipment is up to date.

In the meantime, you can create a new location in SkyTools for the Utah observatory and assign that to each of the systems that have been moved.]]>
I very much wish iTelescope to prove me wrong in my prediction that these telescopes will be a mess for some time to come. I don't have time to try them all right now, so if anyone uses them, please let me know how it goes. I will be releasing revised imaging systems in a week or so, and after that I'll have to spend some time with each one to get some better calibrations and to ensure that all of the equipment is up to date.

In the meantime, you can create a new location in SkyTools for the Utah observatory and assign that to each of the systems that have been moved.]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2732 Sun, 22 Jan 2023 19:32:41 -0500 theskyhound]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2732
Without, as far as I can tell, any prior notification to its customers, iTelescope has abruptly decided to move all of the telescopes that were hosted at New Mexico Skies to a new location in Utah. I am not going to sugar coat it, even though I should probably do so. As a long-time iTelescope customer, I am very unhappy with their lack of transparency. This is not how I would choose to do business. We deserved to be informed about this before the telescopes were abruptly taken off line, much less still being in the dark weeks later.

I don't expect these telescopes to be back online for a very long time, but when they do come back, I'll recalibrate them as necessary. The level of support provided by New Mexico Skies for these older, tricky to maintain, systems has been consistently very good. All we can do is hope that the new site can provide the same level of support. 

Yes, I know I have been dragging my feet with some of the new telescopes in Chile. I need to take images and do some work to get them set up correctly. To be honest, I was so frustrated with how poorly these telescopes worked late last spring, as well as the lack of connectivity, that I gave up on them. But I am told that I should try again, and I will stop stalling and get new calibrations out soon.]]>
Without, as far as I can tell, any prior notification to its customers, iTelescope has abruptly decided to move all of the telescopes that were hosted at New Mexico Skies to a new location in Utah. I am not going to sugar coat it, even though I should probably do so. As a long-time iTelescope customer, I am very unhappy with their lack of transparency. This is not how I would choose to do business. We deserved to be informed about this before the telescopes were abruptly taken off line, much less still being in the dark weeks later.

I don't expect these telescopes to be back online for a very long time, but when they do come back, I'll recalibrate them as necessary. The level of support provided by New Mexico Skies for these older, tricky to maintain, systems has been consistently very good. All we can do is hope that the new site can provide the same level of support. 

Yes, I know I have been dragging my feet with some of the new telescopes in Chile. I need to take images and do some work to get them set up correctly. To be honest, I was so frustrated with how poorly these telescopes worked late last spring, as well as the lack of connectivity, that I gave up on them. But I am told that I should try again, and I will stop stalling and get new calibrations out soon.]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2653 Thu, 20 Oct 2022 15:44:02 -0400 PMSchu]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2653
I successfully connected to all 3 of the iTelescopes in Chile today. Perhaps they've improved the internet connection. Since ST4i doesn't have the information about the T71 & T72 scopes, I downloaded the Telescope Info from their support page.

Here's a link for T71:

https://support.itelescope.net/support/s...lescope-71

The narrowband filter bandwidths are 5 nm.

Here's the link for T72: 

https://support.itelescope.net/support/s...les/254436

No bandwidth given for the narrowband filters here, unfortunately.

Both of these scopes look like real beauties, but T72 is on the pricy side.

Hope this helps,

Phil S.]]>
I successfully connected to all 3 of the iTelescopes in Chile today. Perhaps they've improved the internet connection. Since ST4i doesn't have the information about the T71 & T72 scopes, I downloaded the Telescope Info from their support page.

Here's a link for T71:

https://support.itelescope.net/support/s...lescope-71

The narrowband filter bandwidths are 5 nm.

Here's the link for T72: 

https://support.itelescope.net/support/s...les/254436

No bandwidth given for the narrowband filters here, unfortunately.

Both of these scopes look like real beauties, but T72 is on the pricy side.

Hope this helps,

Phil S.]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2588 Wed, 03 Aug 2022 11:56:33 -0400 PMSchu]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2588
They've announced a webinar to be held this Friday, August 5.[/url]

Here's the link to the info about T80: [url=https://support.itelescope.net/support/solutions/articles/254953-telescope-80?utm_source=iTelescope+Full+List&utm_campaign=e7bfb3a1d2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_11_01_10_38_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ccda314cde-e7bfb3a1d2-315529421]Telescope 80 : Support (itelescope.net)

Phil S.]]>
They've announced a webinar to be held this Friday, August 5.[/url]

Here's the link to the info about T80: [url=https://support.itelescope.net/support/solutions/articles/254953-telescope-80?utm_source=iTelescope+Full+List&utm_campaign=e7bfb3a1d2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_11_01_10_38_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ccda314cde-e7bfb3a1d2-315529421]Telescope 80 : Support (itelescope.net)

Phil S.]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2543 Fri, 27 May 2022 19:50:19 -0400 PMSchu]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2543
I looked at the T68(NM) scope & it has an Astrodon OIII 3nm filter, only. This scope used to have a one-shot color camera. This was the designation it was given to distinguish it when it was located in the Bathhurst site in AU several years ago.

The other T68 is listed as being at New Mexico Skies.

I was wondering which is the proper one to use going forward? Didn't they make this scope free to use for short observing runs?

Phil S.]]>
I looked at the T68(NM) scope & it has an Astrodon OIII 3nm filter, only. This scope used to have a one-shot color camera. This was the designation it was given to distinguish it when it was located in the Bathhurst site in AU several years ago.

The other T68 is listed as being at New Mexico Skies.

I was wondering which is the proper one to use going forward? Didn't they make this scope free to use for short observing runs?

Phil S.]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2536 Mon, 23 May 2022 13:03:15 -0400 prbrandy]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2536 SINCE THIS MAY BE OF INTREST TO OTHERS ON THE FORUM - BELOW IS MY ORIGINAL EMAIL TO SUPPORT:

I am new to Astrophotography and am beginning to use iTelescope. My belief is that the use of Sky Tool 4 Imaging is the best way to plan to make the best use of the subscription fee. I have been able to determine how to set up most items in an plan to be submitted to iTelescope; but am uncertain how to determine the need to select Autoguide for a specific telescope. Is this already selected in the configuration for a telescope and will automatically be set for a plan; or do I need to determine that this needs to be set and manually check to enable? If I need to manually select, any guidance on how to determine if a telescope requires Autoguide would be appreciated.
 
My thanks for an excellent product and I look forward to many fine imaging projects.

AND HERE IS THE EXCELLENT RESPONSE:

Most options are built into the imaging system settings, but Autoguide is one of the exceptions (to enable more flexibility). The best way to determine if a given iTelescope requires the Autoguide selection is to look at the description of the iTelescope on their web site.

Unfortunately this information has been getting harder to find over time (it used to be an obvious top level menu selection), and worse yet, its starting to be placed in multiple places on their system, so finding it can be inconsistent.
 
The most reliable way to find the information for an iTelescope is to log into the iTelescope itself, like you were going to make a reservation or control it. On the top left there is a menu item that reads "Telescope Info."
 
That same info appears to be linked here:
https://support.itelescope.net/support/solutions/161305
 
Once you find the information page you may need to read the operation notes for clues. Also look for a line like this:
 
"*Guiding*: MOAG with Loadstar SX2"
 
This means it has an autoguider and the Autoguide option must be enabled.
 
You can usually get away with assuming that the Autoguide option should be turned on. In almost all cases, if there is no autoguider available, it will simply ignore the command.  But it is safest to o only enable it when necessary. Once you make this selection for a given imaging system on the Scheduler it will remember it for the next time.
 
The ones that don't use autoguiding are generally the Planewave scopes, such as T30, T17, T24, T21, T11, etc. Their mounts are so good that they can track for up to 10 minutes with need to guiding.]]> SINCE THIS MAY BE OF INTREST TO OTHERS ON THE FORUM - BELOW IS MY ORIGINAL EMAIL TO SUPPORT:

I am new to Astrophotography and am beginning to use iTelescope. My belief is that the use of Sky Tool 4 Imaging is the best way to plan to make the best use of the subscription fee. I have been able to determine how to set up most items in an plan to be submitted to iTelescope; but am uncertain how to determine the need to select Autoguide for a specific telescope. Is this already selected in the configuration for a telescope and will automatically be set for a plan; or do I need to determine that this needs to be set and manually check to enable? If I need to manually select, any guidance on how to determine if a telescope requires Autoguide would be appreciated.
 
My thanks for an excellent product and I look forward to many fine imaging projects.

AND HERE IS THE EXCELLENT RESPONSE:

Most options are built into the imaging system settings, but Autoguide is one of the exceptions (to enable more flexibility). The best way to determine if a given iTelescope requires the Autoguide selection is to look at the description of the iTelescope on their web site.

Unfortunately this information has been getting harder to find over time (it used to be an obvious top level menu selection), and worse yet, its starting to be placed in multiple places on their system, so finding it can be inconsistent.
 
The most reliable way to find the information for an iTelescope is to log into the iTelescope itself, like you were going to make a reservation or control it. On the top left there is a menu item that reads "Telescope Info."
 
That same info appears to be linked here:
https://support.itelescope.net/support/solutions/161305
 
Once you find the information page you may need to read the operation notes for clues. Also look for a line like this:
 
"*Guiding*: MOAG with Loadstar SX2"
 
This means it has an autoguider and the Autoguide option must be enabled.
 
You can usually get away with assuming that the Autoguide option should be turned on. In almost all cases, if there is no autoguider available, it will simply ignore the command.  But it is safest to o only enable it when necessary. Once you make this selection for a given imaging system on the Scheduler it will remember it for the next time.
 
The ones that don't use autoguiding are generally the Planewave scopes, such as T30, T17, T24, T21, T11, etc. Their mounts are so good that they can track for up to 10 minutes with need to guiding.]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2535 Sun, 22 May 2022 14:05:06 -0400 MikeF]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2535 https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2222 Sat, 28 Aug 2021 20:56:40 -0400 theskyhound]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2222

  Cats Paw T69.jpg (Size: 780.05 KB / Downloads: 11) ]]>

  Cats Paw T69.jpg (Size: 780.05 KB / Downloads: 11) ]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2151 Wed, 07 Jul 2021 21:11:00 -0400 PMSchu]]> https://skyhound.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2151
It looks like the filters on T16 in Spain have been changed from what's shown in ST4 Imaging. Only a Luminance, Blue, Green & Red filter are available now. Is this something that I can change in the IS setup or do you need to do the update?

If you like, I can go through all the iTelescope filter loads to see if there are other changes.

TIA,

Phil S.]]>
It looks like the filters on T16 in Spain have been changed from what's shown in ST4 Imaging. Only a Luminance, Blue, Green & Red filter are available now. Is this something that I can change in the IS setup or do you need to do the update?

If you like, I can go through all the iTelescope filter loads to see if there are other changes.

TIA,

Phil S.]]>