Smaller free remote control telescopes?

Question

There are several online services that let you control a large telescope (eg, lightbuckets.com and slooh.com), even some that are free (eg, telescope.org).

Unfortunately, the pay services are expensive, and you get very little reserved time on the scopes. The free services are painfully slow: I had to wait several months for a picture of Jupiter I wanted.

Has anyone set up automated (ideally free) remote access to a smaller telescope? I'd much rather play with a 10" telescope in real-time than a larger one in limited/delayed time.

In fact, even a CCD or camera would be nice for wide-angle shots.

Answer 1

I doubt you'll find such a service. Setting up a remote control telescope is technically complex, and hence expensive. Most of the people I know with smaller remote controlled telescopes have invested a lot of time and money into them, and are unlikely to want to share them for free.

Answer 2

In any case, this would be an awesome tinkering project for an amateur observatory. I know an astronomy club whose 1m telescope is unused most of the time.

Maybe you can find an amateur observatory in your region and use their telescope. Maybe you even get them to build such a cool internet service.