As per tradition Voyager always introduces new ideas in the world of Astrophotography. We are happy to announce the creation of the OpenSkyGems Communities Observatories Network
The first Open Network dedicated to private astronomical observatories, OpenSkyGems Network (OSG for short), was born from a collaboration between Voyager Astrophotography software and SkyGems Network. A fast and advanced way to share your observatory and astronomical system with other users around the world. We offer you the software and web infrastructure needed to get your system online via Voyager Advanced software and a dedicated plugin. We have developed a client called OSG that is installed on the PC that automates the observatory and that communicates directly with the OSG portal from which it receives imaging requests from network users. The system is based on a commission model. At the JOIN you will decide the commissions dedicated to OSG and the hourly cost of the system, the proceeds will be paid to you monthly.
You can decide whether to dedicate your observatory entirely to remote sharing or through the priority mechanism keep your targets active when there are no active image sets required by the network.
For who are interested the next daily build of Voyager will have the new section dedicated to this with the possibility to start Join the network.
You must have an Advanced License with not expired support installed and you must purchase just onetime the OpenSkyGems plugin addon for Voyager Advanced which cost is only 49€
After this the commission will starting on the effective points you will sell to the other users. For users I talk about not only who have joined the network in active mode sharing an observatories but also to all the potential users registered in SkyGems website who have the plasure to shot targets without having no knowhow and no setup.
Will be possible also to create a private subnetwork for small teams or associations where manage the targeting requests trough the skygems web facilities.
It isn’t required a public or static IP because the OSG client work like active client to the OpenSkyGems Network Servers talking directly with Voyager server in the local side.
Is this likely to be the best solution for our society to provide remote access to our observatory? How might the cost structure work for a society who provide time to members for free?
@Matt_Balkham I sent you a mail regarding your request. In short, we discussed this option already but need to come up with some sort of subscription model to cover for the hosting and service costs. Technically we are ready for this already
@Kristijan , we are currently getting into the details on how those subscriptions would be designed.
If both you and @Matt_Balkham could expose (even via email) the details on what would be your needs we could get a better idea on what is needed.
Generally speaking, we are planning on a few subscription based solutions, mostly limited by the number of users who can use the system for free (let’s call it team size):
For the owner, the use of his system through the web interface (Skygems Client, basically) is always free. Depending on their needs we are considering some “Teams” packages with 5, 10 or 25 users which woul dneed to be set and can then use the system through the web interface as well for free.
Our issue is on how to recoup the hosting costs that we would have. A relatively inexpensive subscription of maybe 20 EUR a month could for example include 5 or 10 users, and you would still be able to sell unused time, offsetting these costs.
Hey Lukas, you got the point, no need for additional explanations.
I have a team of 3/4 users + me (max 5) using the setup(s). For us I would like this kind of “TEAMS” subscription. It’s understandable that one person can not handle all possible equipment and issues. I have 1 setup fully operative (RC10’‘), another one will be ready by end of January or beginning February (doublet TAKA106+85), and the third one is the difficult one, I will need some more time for this 16’’ RC.
For all other users we speaking about standard hourly rate sell as any other system already available on your website.
Take your time and let us know the details when ready, no pressure.
Thanks for the information. Yes, it is going to be something like this. Indeed, with Leonardo, we would like to start with a few systems to check out any potential issues or improvements that might be needed. We tested it already, and the system on the web itself is already proven for years, so no big surprises to be expected.
The delay we are facing now is due to me adding the functionalities to distinghuish between all these potential “subscriptions” I expect to be ready next week. Leonardo, on the other hand, is already ready, so my fault here
We really did! After weeks of testing and months of development We released the first version of OpenSkyGems Network. An absolute novelty. We are confident with your help that all the great work behind it will be put to good use.
It is possible to immediately use the network with the following possibilities:
Personal use, only 1 user to have the potential of web the portal itneraction for targets available everywhere
Use for private teams with number of people definable by subscription
use for time and target resale open to all skygems registered users (potentially anyone)
promiscuous use for private teams and public users
It was a unique experience to tackle this project, which will surely develop rapidly in the future.
Thank you
Install this version of Voyager and join it in the new section of the menù dedicated to OSG, a detailed PDF will show you the way to join and the variuos configuration.
Very interesting. Can you elaborate on this topic ? How does the web interface looks like. Does the setup need to be permenantly connected to use the OpenSkyGems web interface ?
Can you provide some screenshoots ?
I might be able to help here
With the free subscription tier, one user (the owner, basically) can of course use his system also through the web interface for free. This matters as we do offer some paid subscriptions designed for teams and associations where you have a higher number of “free” users available. Those users, who need to be registered on Skygems Observatory Network website, can send requests and do not have to pay for it - so it is like having a nice web interface to your system
When one connects his system to OpenSkyGems, it is useful if the connection stays up as much as possible. If there is an interruption (simple example, the observatory computer is off during daylight) it’s not a problem.
If you want to get a feel on how it would be used, go to https://www.skygems-observatories.com and create an account (it’s free). You can then look around at the Dashboard and the Imaging Request wizard.
We are open for every idea you might (and will ) come up for improvement. AMong others, we are working on a new web interface accomodating the growing number of systems, which will also run as an app on Android and iPad/iPhones
Also, to elaborate on Leonardo’s post, when joining the network there are a few considerations to be made.
Most users will (my guess) be interested in just selling some time through the network to paying users, and for those we designed the “Free” tier.
Then we have some “Team” plans. The main difference here is the number of users who can use the web interface without having to pay for the imaging time. SO, if you have say a group of 5 perople running one remote scope somewhere, this plan could be for you: The 5 co-owners could use the system through the web interface for free, while “normal” Skygems users would use it for a fee.
Then, there is a third option we thought about: A private system. Let’s suppose that the team of five we mentioned earlier want to use the web interface, but they do not intend on sharing time with other paying users. With the private option, their system would be visible and usable only by themselves.
Now, to be clear, both the single tiers as well as the features are not se tin stone. If need arises we are quite agile in coming up with something suitable, both cost-wise and feature-wise. So please reach out with any particular requests you might have
Thank you Lukas for the details about OpenSkyGems. This is a very interesting system. I’ll certainly look at it closely once I have my setup on a permanent observatory
