Why remote?

What does your sky
really cost you?

Astrophotography rarely fails because of skill. It fails because of two things: a washed-out sky and too few clear nights. Both cost you exposure time – and therefore money tied up in equipment, fuel and hotel rooms. This calculator uses your own numbers to show how large the difference really is. Everything is computed in your browser; no input is stored or transmitted.

Step 1 · Your starting point

Your location

Sky & nights
1 = pristine night sky, 5 = suburban, 9 = inner city. If you do not know your value, 6 is a realistic starting point for Central Europe.
In Central Europe 60–100 usable nights per year are typical.
After setup, twilight, moonlight and sleep are taken out.
How many hours of real image data do you want to collect per year?

Your planned equipment

Purchase
Maintenance, power, software, spare parts. The purchase is spread over 5 years.

Your telescope

Device & running costs
Hosting on La Palma is currently reserved for ZWO smart telescopes.
Drives to your observing site, maintenance, accessories, power.

Trips to a dark site

Effort per year
Travel cost covers the outbound and return leg. Weather loss reduces the hours you can actually use on site.

What light pollution costs you in time

Usable hours on La Palma –
Usable hours at home –
Exposure-time factor at home –
of that in La Palma quality –
Additional productive hours –

Further south, more clear nights, longer astronomical darkness per night on average — that's why the time actually available on La Palma is far greater than at your home.

Actually available hours per year (before quality adjustment)

At home–
La Palma–

What one hour of image data costs you

Every option is compared per hour of comparable quality – that is, what takes considerably longer under your sky than under the sky of La Palma.

Option A

At home

–

per hour in La Palma quality

  • Cost per year: –
  • Usable hours per year: –
  • Available any time, no travel involved.
  • Light pollution costs exposure time; equipment ties up capital.

Option B

Trip to a dark site

–

per hour in La Palma quality

  • Cost per year: –
  • Usable hours per year: –
  • Dark sky without recurring fees.
  • Travel, lodging and weather risk for every trip.

Option C

StarShare Rental

–

per hour in La Palma quality

  • Cost per year: –
  • Your target hours per year: –
  • Dark sky without travelling, without your own gear, cancel any time.
  • You use our telescope — time is limited to what you book.

Your personal remote evaluation

–

Rent telescope time → View sample images
How is this calculated?
Assumptions and prices used
Bortle class and sky brightness Each Bortle class is mapped to a typical zenith brightness in mag/arcsec² (class 1 ≈ 21.95 down to class 9 ≈ 17.60).
Exposure-time factor For background-limited imaging, SNR ∝ signal · √t / √sky background. To reach the same signal-to-noise ratio, exposure time has to rise in the same proportion as the sky background: factor = 100.4 · (SQMdark − SQMbright). Moonlight, cirrus, filters and read noise are not taken into account.
La Palma site 21.90 mag/arcsec², about 250 clear nights per year, on average 7.5 usable hours of astronomical darkness per night.
Your own equipment Purchase and accessories are spread evenly over 5 years; running costs are added each year.
Travel Travel cost per kilometre for the outbound and return leg, lodging per night, minus the weather loss you set.
StarShare prices Hourly rental €15 per hour, subscription €249 per month, hosting €100 per month. These values are loaded live from our product catalogue.
When does what pay off? The subscription beats the hourly rate from about 199 h per year, hosting from about 80 h per year.
How binding is this? All figures are estimates, not a guarantee. Real results depend on weather, moon phase, target object, equipment and image processing. The defaults are deliberately conservative; you can override every value.

Ready for a dark sky?

Try it with your own target

From €15 per hour, valid for 12 months, no equipment of your own needed.

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