Texas Telescope "Tycoon" leases space to serious amateurs and pros alike

[Shannon W]

I have been following the discussion about going in on some land together on this list. This guy in Texas has 40 acres of land, is a professional astronomer himself. People send him their scopes to mount and store , and pay him a monthly fee. Maybe that's a way the land could pay for itself. That way you don't have to get people to make a forever commitment, just enough subscribers. You'd need more capital to build the sheds with retractable roofs like he has, obviously. Or start with some simpler options like just concrete pads with permanent stands.

https://youtu.be/bN48vEqaQs8?is=UQsjp26pkYuB1d5d

[John Pierce]

On Wed, Jun 17, 2026 at 1:24 PM Shannon W <thesqu...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have been following the discussion about going in on some land together on this list. This guy in Texas has 40 acres of land, is a professional astronomer himself. People send him their scopes to mount and store , and pay him a monthly fee. Maybe that's a way the land could pay for itself. That way you don't have to get people to make a forever commitment, just enough subscribers. You'd need more capital to build the sheds with retractable roofs like he has, obviously. Or start with some simpler options like just concrete pads with permanent stands.

you don't have to go to Texas for this...  there are sites right here in California,

https://www.sierra-remote.com/

 

[Dave Bullock]

There’s a new one in Death Valley some of my coworkers are using and happy with. My buddy has a scope in the Texas one. 

On Jun 17, 2026, at 1:31 PM, John Pierce <jhn.p...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Shannon W]

So there is demand then? Sounds like it could be viable.

-S

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[John Pierce]

There's also several in New Mexico...

https://darkskynewmexico.com/

https://hcronewmexico.com/

https://nmskies.com/

and probably others.   These are largely at fairly high elevations, like 7000', and incredibly dark.

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[Mark]

Shannon, which thread had you been watching on this list?

[Alex]

Hope it's not offtopic yet :) Camera farms are indeed the most recent trend in the global AP world. Some call them Distributed Science, other - Hobby graveyards...

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[Tan usa1]

Umm, its not that simple. I have a scope there. It requires full time staff to manage the roof, internet, systems.Its not like - store your telescope in a garage. Remote observastories have been around for a long time and do require a lot of work

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[Dave Bullock]

Why are they hobby graveyards? 

On Jun 18, 2026, at 9:31 PM, Tan usa1 <tanveer...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Tan usa1]

You lose the motivation to go out and image, and when you can do it remotely from your living room, it becomes kind of borin. I can gather a lot of data ad process it but cant find the motivation. On the bright side, I am doing a lot of visual with the challenger at FPOA and volunteering on most of public outreach nights 

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[Muriel Dulieu]

Can you learn and operate the challenger alone? I have been wanting to do that for a long time.

-Muriel

On Jun 19, 2026, at 10:39 AM, Tan usa1 <tanveer...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Easswar]

I believe the plot was lost at some point in this thread. I don't want to put words in their mouth, and maybe I'm completely wrong, but from my understanding Shannon was saying that the idea of a group of us buying some land for observing can be subsidized by having the remote observatory setup there as well.

On the flip side, are there any remote observatory things nearby that we could reach out to to have a reserved access area?

Easswar

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[Peter Santangeli]

Not sure the plot was totally lost, but one of the observations made is that's a nice idea, but it is a lot of work. You are trading paying for the land for having a full time IT and physical administration job.

pete

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[Easswar]

Fair enough, after a reread I see that the plot wasn't entirely lost.

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[Tan usa1]

Operating it alone is a bit of a hassle. Atleast 2 people is a good idea. 3 is better. If you are a member, since I am trained we can have a challenger night. 

With the pi-finder now - using it is a delight!

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