Remote telescope farm helps far away stargazers beat light pollution
By day, a row of simple-looking sheds in the quiet town of Rockwood, Texas, looks like nothing more than a place to store farm tools and food. But when the sun sets below the horizon, their roofs lift in unison to reveal a hidden array of hundreds of telescopes.
The so-called telescope farm is the brainchild of amateur astronomer Bray Falls, who turned his passion into a business when he co-founded the company Starfront Observatories 18 months ago.
“It hasn’t aged yet. It’s so cool, every time,” Falls said of the transforming sheds.
Starfront rents space to customers who ship their telescopes to the farm and control them via the Internet from the comfort of their home. The remote location allows amateur astronomers to take stunning photos they wouldn’t be able to take from home, because the skies in Rockwood are much darker than where they live, which helps solve one of amateur astronomers’ biggest problems: light pollution.
The night sky has become harder to see due to a 10% annual increase in light pollution over the past decade, according to a 2023 study published in the journal Science.
Starfront customers live all over the world, including Europe, Asia and the Middle East, Falls said.
Chuck Ayoub, in suburban Detroit, has a garage full of telescopes, but he hardly uses them since he shipped one to Texas.
“The big difference is the dark skies. I’m 20 minutes from downtown Detroit and the light pollution is deadly,” Ayoub said.
Most evenings, Ayoub broadcasts the live feed from his telescope to his many followers on social media. There’s also a small camera at the base so he can see his telescope in action.
From the Starfront property, Falls and others identify celestial objects that no one has ever seen before, such as a photo he calls the “Crown of Thorns” nebula. These discoveries improve our understanding of space, even as our ability to see it diminishes.
Asked about the threat posed by light pollution, Falls said: “It really stops people from dreaming, like seeing what’s above them, just in awe. You get tingles, you get goosebumps.”
But now it’s a feeling you can feel, even from your basement in Detroit.
Jack Schlossberg, grandson of John F. Kennedy, announces his candidacy for Congress
Passengers wait for hours as air traffic control staffing problems due to shutdown disrupt travel
White House Responds to Epstein Emails Released by House Oversight Committee Democrats
