Hi Everyone! I'm glad to see so much interest in this Image in this amazing community. I'm the CTO of Observatorio El Sauce, the observatory where this telescope is located. This place is a fully robotic observatory that provides a service called "Telescope Hosting", which basically means that people send their telescopes and observe remotely from wherever they live. Why would they do that instead of observing from their backyards? That's because in that part of Chile we have the best sky quality for astronomy in the world, in terms of amount of clear nights a year (320 clera nights a year), light pollution (class 1 en Bortle scale), and in something called "seeing" (average below 1"), which is a measure of the smallest thing the sky would allow you to image (the smaller the better). Thus, from our observatory our clients get the best possible image they can get with their telescopes.

Also, a good friend of mine developed this digital scope so you can zoom in the picture easily without going back to the 90ties internet experience: https://scope.avocco.com/case/20/eWKcUiIXpuQU9V0z

I'd be happy to answer to your questions :) Enjoy!

Cool service! Can you say anything on how many telescopes you host, and ballpark price, and any history of how the observatory got started (land, permits etc)?

Hi! Thanks :) We have already 30 telescopes for different purposes, mainly for science and astrophotography. Our standard plans, which include maintenance and most of the support you'd need, cost around 7500 usd/year. The project started in 2012, we spent a couple of years finding the land, doing all the necessary paperwork and getting permits, getting internet, etc. Our first telescope arrived in the beginning of 2015. Our goal is to be a professional alternative to the big scientific observatories, but mainly purposed for small and middle-sized telescopes.

Nice little setup. I liked how they set up the 'small' telescopes (pardon my ignorance). I didn't see any pricelist though.

[1]: http://www.cielaustral.com/construction4.htm [2]: http://www.cielaustral.com/cons4/cons13.jpg

(Not related to the project, just checked their website)