You will receive a full refund. However, if we have started acquiring your data already, then a refund is not possible.

At almost all times this would be unlikely however;

Acts of God, severe weather fronts and other outside forces may occasionally cause unforeseen delays. As soon as these circumstances have passed, we will continue to gather your data as normal.

We would obviously discuss this with you, if it became necessary.

Prolonged extreme weather events aside...

Our backend imaging system is designed to even out general weather events which allows a smoother more efficient way to collect the data.

This can be far more convenient than being clouded out with a conventional hourly slot book booking system you normaly see online, as you are not tied to a specific day/time to collect your data.

So in essence with our 7-28 day imaging window, we should not get a failure except with the most extreme weather event.

Of course you can, simply book time on another scope :)

You can book as many of our telescopes as you wish. In fact you can do multiple bookings on the same telescope if you desire.

We recommend all of our users to download Telescopius to check what objects are in the sky.

Alternatively, put our location into your chosen planetarium software on your PC

Our location:

Latitude:   38° 13' 10.89" North
Longitude:   6° 37' 54.32" West
Altitude:   560 metres
Timezone: Western Europe

You do, as the imager it's your responsibility.

However, our backend algorithm's are designed to help collect your data at the optimum imaging time.

NB if you choose a winter object in June you will be waiting a few months for your subs, so please check properly before booking!

You will find these limits on the individual equipment pages of each pier.

As a general rule of thumb they will be:

Ultra Widefield < 300mm FL: 20º
Widefield < 1000mm FL: 25º
Medium < 3000mm FL: 30º

You do, it's your responsibility as the imager.

We supply the equipment and the location, so you can make the perfect image :)

You are, we supply the equipment and the location.

It's up to you as the imager to check these things, just like you do when you image at home.

The data and intellectual property rights are yours as is the image itself.

• You chose the co-ordinates
• You calibrated the data
• You processed the data into your final image

Roboscopes have no rights to the data apart from ensuring data protection while it is stored on our server.

Your data is stored on our server for 14 days from when we have finalised collecting the data.

No you cannot, this goes against our terms and conditions, not to mention the rules fair play!

Unfortunately this behaviour would result in your membership being cancelled.

No they cannot, this goes against our terms and conditions, not to mention the rules fair play!

Clubs or professional bodies must use our Platinum membership option.

Of course you don't :)

The data belongs to you and you alone, so it's your decision to state how you acquired the data.

Although in most cases people do state "remotely acquired" data these days.

Of course you don't :)

The data belongs to you and you alone, so it's your decision to state how you acquired the data.

Although, it would be nice if you did as we have only just started up so any brand advertising would help us out :)

Roboscopes decided to use Unity Gain with our range of Cmos sensors because it gave the best combination of:

1. Dynamic range
2. Noise floor
3. Signal to noise ratio
4. Flexible sub lengths for most deep sky objects

All memberships are for 12 months and renewable every 12 months including the free Silver membership.

Gold & Platinum members subscription fees are paid on a monthly basis to help spread the cost over the year.

I'm afraid not, every Roboscopes membership is 12 months long.

If you choose Gold or Platinum you are agreeing to a 12 month membership which is paid on a monthly basis, you are not agreeing to a monthly membership.

No, this is unfair and against our terms and conditions, by doing this you are not using Roboscopes memberships as they are intended.

All our memberships are 12 month plans.

Under special circumstances this rule is flexible but "trying to get a few cheap nights imaging" does not fall under the "special" umbrella.

This has added cost implications and would not allow us to keep our prices so low, more features cost more money.

However, in the coming months we are bringing on board live observatory cameras so during imaging hours you can see the whole observatory doing it's nightshift :)

This is not how Roboscopes works.

Our way of doing things is different and more flexible than a regular online hourly paid service you may have used.

Your data will be available in your personal "My Data" area located in the members area menu.

As it happens yes we do...

We have another pier available - Pier 13 which is not shown on our normal website yet!

Pier 13 team will comprise of between 10 & 15 individuals who will decide between themselves what the telescope will image etc. You will have a private area within our forum where you can chat amongst yourselves as well as plan your imaging year :)

Please get in touch if you are interested in becoming part of this imaging team.

Pier 13 details:

Roboscopes aim to deliver the best data and customer service we can, at all times.

If you are unhappy with any aspect of what we do, then please get in touch and we will do our upmost to keep you happy.

I'm afraid not. It does not work this way.

If you want to benefit from cheaper hourly rates, then you need to become a Gold or Platinum member!

Yes you can cancel your 12 month membership, although you may still be liable for some or all of your remaining membership term.

Our Terms & Conditions page contains details of:

1  What you signed up to
2  Our terms of service
3  Reasonable and acceptable reasons for membership cancellation

I am afraid you cannot. Clubs or professional bodies must use our Platinum membership option.

That's an easy one :)

We decided to cut away what we felt were unnecessary features and services that the vast majority of people may not use. We thought "cheaper" prices would interest more people than bloat.

Services and features cost money, its a trade off between price & niceties!

On average our location has seeing of 1-2 "/px although it can go below <1 "/px in the winter.

We decided to simplify the imaging process by binning our cameras to suit our location, so where possible we keep our image scale above 1 "/px.

In our experience oversampling can be more damaging than undersampling because you simply loose too many subs due to atmospherics. Where as with undersampling you just loose extra detail.

Yes we have a standard set of darks for all telescopes, the lengths of these are set out in the forum.

If you require special darks then please get in touch before you image to ensure your request can be catered for.

We have calibration frames for all piers, please go to the forum to see what frames we have available.

We have a standard set of flats for all telescopes. please visit the forum for examples.

We have taken bias frames for setups with CMOS sensors for those that choose to use them but in our experience with CMOS sensors they are not necessary.

At times they can be detrimental to the image.

No worries :)

Just go to the memberships page and upgrade to whichever membership suits your needs.

I am afraid not, we have set the binning in our systems to suit our location and sky conditions.

Only on the systems where it does not state N/A in the equipment filter section.

See relevant equipment page.

Only on the systems where it does not state N/A in the equipment filter section.

See relevant equipment page.

Only on the systems where it does not state N/A in the equipment filter section.

See relevant equipment page.

Yes we have a standard set of Bias for all cameras. Please see the forum for more details.

We have taken them for setups with CMOS sensors for those that choose to use them but in our experience with CMOS sensors they are not necessary and at times can be detrimental to the image.

We have horizon limits in place because the lower down you image the thicker the atmosphere gets causing atmospheric refraction amongst other things. All telescopes are affected by this to some extent but as a rule of thumb wide-field sets are more accommodating.

We can accommodate this for you but obviously the quality of data you will receive is at your own risk. Due to atmospherics while imaging low down.

Please contact us to discuss beforehand.

We accept most major debit, credit cards and Paypal as forms of payment.

We do not accept American Express, Diner Club etc etc

No we do not share them, except with our external payment gateway providers.

Roboscopes has no access to your card details but your membership name and address is shared with Stripe or Paypal payment gateways in order to verify your payment.

Yes our website is secure and has a standard applied security certificate. See the browser bar at the top of this page you will see a padlock icon to the left of our website address.

We handle or store no card/payment details within our own website.

This is handled externally by our payment gateways; Stripe and Paypal.

We use Stripe for all card transactions but also offer Paypal for those that prefer using their payment services.

Both are secure external payment gateway providers.

Our memberships are auto-renewed every 12 months, you will be sent a reminder before renewal.

I am afraid not.

Platinum memberships are one user per group and multiples there after.

eg if you have 10 members who want to image with Roboscopes then you need to subscribe to 10 Platinum memberships

our back office system algorythems with take things like sky postion, horizon limits and moon into account when imaging so your data will be collected over more than one evening. Other points to take into account: We do not bother imaging deep sky when the moon is very cloe to or full LRGB data is more suspectable to the Moon so takes longer. We only image luminence when the moon is below the horizon and RGB with max moon avoidence is in place

All announcements regarding Pier Maintenance are shown within "The Warm Room" in the 'Important Area', please use this as your first point of call to check for updates.