Question about insurance for remotely hosted telescopes

[Chris Todd]

After my presentation last night, one of the questions (from Victor) asked about insurance and liability. To paraphrase my answer, "don't send anything you're unwilling to lose".

The longer answer is that there was, at some point, a relatively local insurance agent who offered a coverage plan for gear hosted at Starfront. However, at some point, they stopped offering those plans, in part (we believe) because they started to realize how many scopes were hosted at Starfront, and their total value. So, I do not think such insurance plans are still available.

Also note that some Starfront customers have reported that their homeowner's insurance supposedly covers their gear at Starfront, but that does not seem to be a consistent experience, so your mileage may vary.

Regards,

Chris Todd

[John Nagy]

Surely, you could get a personal articles policy from your local insurance agent? I have one for my gear via State Farm... peace of mind for me when it's outside alone all night in the backyard. My homeowners insurance would cover my gear but with the large deductible on that policy ,I'd be covering most of any loss of my gear myself. The personal articles policy I have is a direct replacement of gear at my original purchase price and no deductible.

I also fail to see why an insurance company would care if your gear is sitting next to someone else's (even hundreds)...they're only covering your gear in the event of a loss. I think you'd worry less about theft and more about a natural catastrophe like fire (probably wouldn't spread easily over concrete with metal piers) or storm damage.

Just my thoughts... I have no gear at Starfront though it is enticing with so many dark clear nights there.

John

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[j...@tomney.com]

> I also fail to see why an insurance company would care if your gear is sitting next to someone else's (even hundreds)...

 

Given the small (but real) possibility of a tornado I would think an insurance company might be willing to take on insuring a certain percentage of clients (e.g., with riders on home insurance), but with the idea of spreading risk among policy holders I can see why they would not want to insure the whole lot (and hence why StarFront is not including any insurance coverage).

 

Jim

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