You can access our Blog and Academy without any subscription. You can also browse our gallery without any monthly plan.
However, to observe with our telescopes, and use One-Click Observations, Pro Datasets or Advanced Requests, you need to subscribe to one of our plans. You will also need a subscription to access our Standard or Premium tutorials.
Telescope Live offers three paid subscription plans created to better diversify our offering to you, based on what aspect of the platform you would like to use.
The plans are called Bronze, Silver and Gold. We offer a 1-week free trial for the Silver plan.
But let’s see in practical terms all the differences between the various plans with a careful examination of each one, starting with the lowest – both in terms of cost and functionalities.
The Bronze Plan
The Bronze plan is designed for who is getting started with astrophotography or remote imaging.
In the Bronze plan you will be able to submit two One-Click Observation at a time. One-Click Observations are the easiest and most convenient way to obtain images from our telescope.
It works like this:
- You choose from a list of specially selected objects to observe,
- you send us your request
- and we will observe it for you.
- Some hours/days later (depending from the observation’s conditions and from the object chosen), once we have gathered the data, we will send you a color picture ready to be shared, along with the raw data should you wish to process it yourself.
- and then you will have the possibility to request another One-Click Observation.
Moreover, with a Bronze plan you will have access to the standard video tutorials produced by our world-renowned astrophotographers that will let you improve both your observation and post-processing skills. We publish new tutorials every month.
Lastly, you will also have access to the community and to all the learning resources.
As you might have understood, this subscription plan addresses all the novices and the people who are curious about learning about space.
The Silver Plan
Here things are starting to get interesting…
- With the Silver plan you can have five One-Click Observations at a time.
Instead of just 1 (as in the Bronze plan) you will be able to submit 5 different requests at any given time. Each time we return to you a completed One-Click Observation, you will have a new one to use, and so on up to the limit of 5 active requests at the same time.
But this isn’t the really cool thing about the Silver plan… In fact,
- You will have access to the standard Pro Datasets
Pro Datasets are complete sets of raw images obtained regularly from our network of telescopes. It works like this:
- You can choose the Pro Dataset you want
- and you will immediately download the raw data (delivered in FITS format) of your chosen observation that would have been carefully chosen by our team of experts, without having to wait for an observation to complete or for clear skies.
We publish new Pro Datasets regularly, so you will always have new data to play with.
This observing modality was carefully studied for those who want high-quality data and want to immediately start to work on post-processing.
The other very cool thing is that with many Pro Datasets, you will also get specific video tutorials that will boost your post-processing skills.
This will be the best value for money service you can imagine since you will get the same images taken with our professional top quality telescopes included in your subscription plan!
But wait, there is more!
- In fact, you will have access to all the premium video tutorials we are going to publish.
The premium video tutorials are masterclasses curated by world-renowned astrophotographers, that will enormously increase your processing abilities.
- Finally, with the Silver plan you will be able to take full control of our telescopes through Advanced Requests
Advanced Requests are specifically designed for the most demanding astrophotographers. They allow you to tweak every aspect of your observations and to obtain the highest quality raw images.
The main thing that differentiates this observation modality from the One Click Observations and Pro Datasets is that, in order to submit an advanced request, you will have to buy credits.
The unit cost per credit is $1. Telescope prices range from 35 to 200 credits per hour of observing time, depending on telescope model and moon phase. (The full telescope pricing list is available here)
You will need to buy credits because you are basically renting our telescope for observing a target of your exclusive interest.
- As with the Bronze plan, you will have access to the community and to all the learning resources.
The Gold Plan
Here you will get all the features included in the Silver plan, such as:
- Access to all the premium video tutorials we are going to publish.
- Access to the community and to all the learning resources.
- The possibility to buy credits and to submit the Advanced Requests.
This plan also includes ar a lot of more stuff, such as:
- Unlimited One-Click Observations.
With the Gold plan, you will have the possibility to simultaneously request all the One-Click Observations you can dream of.
- Access to the premium Pro Datasets.
The premium Pro Datasets are much more sophisticated (and therefore expensive) raw data than the standard ones included in the Silver plan.
In fact, you will get raw data that will take hours of observation from our telescopes and they will be included with your subscription.
This means that you will get data that, to observe right now creating the observing request yourself, will easily cost you more than 1000 credits.
- Get 20% credit discount when you submit an Advanced Request
This means that, if you set up an observation with the Silver plan it is going to cost you 100 credits, instead it will cost you only 80 credits.
- Finally – and this is very cool – you will be assigned to a personal tutor that will assist you in every step of your journey
Having a dedicated tutor will support you even more in your learning process. They will be your personal guide, helping out in case you need any kind of assistance in post-processing or in observing with the Advanced Requests.
Imagine you have a specific topic about post-processing or an observation issue that you want to explore in more details…
Now you can ask your questions directly to one of our tutors in a one-to-one call that will guide you through the whole process.
This thing alone is worth the cost of the monthly subscription.