I live in the southeastern US and have had my astrophotography set up at PixelSkies since 2021. I can unequivocally say that this has turned out to be a great choice for me. I am able to image remotely under extraordinarily dark skies comfortably from my home in North Carolina. Quite frankly, I do not know how I would be able to pursue this hobby without PixelSkies. Dave Wills has been an invaluable help to me. Whenever. I have an issue with equipment or questions about the software, he is always there and ready to help me. Since I am 4000 miles away, I really need that kind of support. Also, I have what I feel is an advantage of being 6 hours behind Spain, so I can usually monitor my imaging without losing any sleep. I really cannot say enough good things about PixelSkies. I suspect no other remote hosting site could provide the high level of service I am getting there, so I do not hesitate to recommend it to anyone interested in a remote site for their setup.
Last year I moved to Portugal and after visiting several observatories in the Iberian Peninsula (and even trying one in Portugal) I decided to install my equipment at Pixel Skies. The observatory is located in an area with dark skies (SQM ~21.5), a very good access road and accommodation options in the area. Its owners, David (@David Wills (PixelSkiesAstro)) & Michelle, along with their eldest son Adam, maintain the facilities impeccably and are very pleasant and affable. They live on-site, which offered me an additional sense of security that other observatories in the area do not have.
David, who is an astrophotographer with years of experience, was available during the installation and helped me find solutions to unexpected problems (which is quite common in this hobby ).
The technical support system they offer is absolutely fantastic. All I have to do is open a ticket in FreshDesk and in less than 24 hours David contacts me and helps me solve the problem. Apart from this, they also create a WhatsApp private group for each client which they closely monitor to support requests that require immediate attention.
You can't imagine how important on-site technical support can be until you need it. A few weeks ago I lost communication with my surveillance camera and a few minutes after sending a message on WhatsApp, the problem was resolved. When you image remotely having uninterrupted access to your surveillance camera is very, very important (keep reading below).
The importance of on-site technical support becomes evident when something unexpected (and scary) happens to your equipment and you are sitting in front of a computer hundreds (or probably thousands) of kilometers away. A few days ago at the beginning of the astronomical session, my mount stopped working properly and through my surveillance camera I watched how the mount started slewing in the wrong direction. I contacted David right away and he immediately went to the observatory to assess the situation. Luckily, PixelSkies internet is extremely fast and when all this happened I sent a command to disconnect the mount from the electrical outlet on time for the mount not to crash against the pier. After placing the mount in its correct position, David stayed next to the equipment as the session restarted to make sure everything was working properly. That's what I call first-class service!!
All in all, I cannot be more happy at my decision to install my equipment at PixelSkies.
Choosing a location to host a remote observatory is a very difficult decision. Since I already have my own observatory built near my house, I just had no idea how it would work, when you can't just walk over 50 meters and adjust something or refine the equipment. I live in Ukraine, in the nearest suburb of Kyiv - so I’m exposed to light pollution and cloudy nights. After February 2022, the war changed everything significantly. I studied many sites and opportunities, looked at reviews of the services, and compared the prices for placing equipment. I enjoyed communicating with Dave from Pixel Skies Astro from the very beginning - he gave very detailed explanations of how hosting works, helped with the choice of equipment and instilled confidence in my project from the very beginning. Of course, it is very important that Dave is an excellent astrophotographer himself and can help like no one else. But what’s more important is how much Dave and his partner Michelle care about your comfort and working conditions. When I sent them my equipment, it seemed to me they were more worried about it coming on time and in tact than I was :) These people know how to create not just a service, but real personal support. Dave did a great job upgrading my telescope. And this despite the fact that this is RASA 11 - a rather capricious technique :) Dave gave me a great New Year's gift - it was on that night that I received the first pictures from my remote telescope. Now, six months later, I am sure that in this short period of time I have achieved much more than in all the previous 15 years of my hobby. With the support of Pixel Skies, I feel like an advanced amateur in astrophotography - I already have about 40 photos on my Astrobin, and I know for sure that this became possible only thanks to the support of Dave and Michelle. These are the guys who really know how to make dreams come true.
In the winter of 2021, after becoming fed up with the British weather, I decided it was time to look at having a system hosted remotely under clearer skies. After chatting to Ian King, who I knew had a lot of experience of running equipment in Spain, I decided to go with PixelSkiesAstro which is a remote telescope hosting site in north of the province of Granada.
Initially, I purchased a fully working rig from First Light Optics who had run the system for a few months so I did not have to go through the process of shipping equipment to Spain and having it all put together. I wrote about at the time on my blog here: http://www.astro-sharp.com/2021/10/23/my-new-remote-setup-in-spain/
My initial experience was very positive and so I decided to have a larger OTA installed which would better suit the kind of scientific photometry work I mostly do. In April 2023 I had a Celestron C11 Edge HD and the supporting equipment shipped to PixelSkies and took my first a trip out to the site to see it for myself. Unfortunately, the kit got caught up is customs and so I wasn’t able to help Dave Wills install it but it was great to meet Dave, Michelle and Adam their son who is also involved in the technical side of the business. After I had arrived back home in the UK, the kit arrived and Dave installed it for me and expertly carried out the polar alignment and collimation.
It was good to meet Dave, Michelle and Adam last year and my wife and I were made extremely welcome. The site is great and the several telescope ‘sheds’ are superb and very well maintained – clinically clean inside. There is a beautiful cave house on site for guests too, although we did not stay there during that trip.
I would not hesitate to recommend PixelSkiesAstro to anyone thinking of going remote. Oh, and the skies are excellent!
11th July 2024