“The heavens have long attracted enthusiastic amateur sky gazers, who have often been the first to spot comets, exploding stars and other cosmological finds.

But it is not a cheap hobby — a good telescope can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars — nor an easy one. Most people live in urban and suburban areas where the night skies, flooded by artificial lighting, never get very dark. Clouds can also get in the way, and in places up north, standing outside in winter can be uncomfortably cold…

The founders of Starfront say there is a better way: ship the telescope to Texas, along with a digital camera and a computer. At Starfront, a technician will install the device onto a steel mount in one of the sheds.

It is like renting a parking spot for your telescope, albeit one with a high-speed data connection. The cost starts at $99 a month for the smallest telescope.

The telescopes can track the same part of the sky over many nights. Over that time, digital camera sensors can gather enough photons to reveal objects that are otherwise invisible. Amateurs typically use telescopes with a wide field of view and thus spot things missed by giant professional observatories, which focus on a speck of the night sky.”

From New York Times.