Let Me Introduce Telescope Live 3.0
As promised a couple of days ago, today I'll introduce to you all the new features and improvements we will soon launch on our platform.
Below, you'll find a video that will tell you all the same things you see written in this email.
So it's up to you either to read this email or to watch the video.
Let's start analyzing the problems we encountered with the current platform to better understand what we have changed to solve them.
As you know, here at Telescope Live, we are always looking for new ways to make life easier for astrophotographers.
For this reason, a few months ago, we launched a survey that asked our users what things they liked and what they would have changed.
We then collected the feedback and immediately set to improve your experience to be as consistent as possible with our Mission - which I told you about in my last email.
In fact, some of the problems that emerged from the survey were tackled shortly after it, such as an improved navigation and download experience for One-Click Observations.
Other improvements, however, were more complicated at the programming level. So, it took us some time to find the solution that combined the practicality on the user side and stability in internal operation.
Let's see what problems we are going to solve with Telescope Live 3.0
Major Issues in Telescope Live 2.0
- One of biggest problem is the frustration with scheduling One-Click Observations.
- It seems that getting new observations feels a bit like a lottery, with long periods where all your scheduled observations never occur.
- This means that people feel they are paying their monthly fee for nothing.
- On top of that, people have no way to access observations that were missed in the past.
- Sometimes, the quality of the One-Click observations is bad
- People feel a lack of connection with the observations.
But what's the reason of these constant delays? Well, The planning of future One-Click Observations is extremely susceptible to external factors (such as weather, technical issues, quality control, etc)
This results in frequent postponements of the One-Clicks that you book.
This is something that cannot be easily fixed… As many of you know, reliably taking good quality images with telescopes is super-hard! And we do it robotically!
The consequence is that you don't get enough images.
On average, we obtain 120-150 One-Click Observations every month.
By carefully analyzing our data, we’ve seen the great majority of our clients don’t get to see almost any of these One Clicks. On average, a Bronze takes 6 per month; a Silver takes 15 per month; and a Gold takes 50 per month.
This is such a small fraction of observations compared to all the One-Clicks we acquire each month!
Moreover, If you do not book a One-Click Observation, this data is "lost", and you will never be able to collect it. This is a waste of data.
Finally, the user has very little control over the future observing schedule since there is no possibility to choose what to observe in the future. We are the ones deciding the future schedule, therefore people don't feel part of the observing experience.
But we have a solution to all of the above!
We've spent the last few months working hard to fix these issues, and today, I'm happy to introduce to you Telescope Live 3.0
Telescope Live 3.0
The Telescope Live Image Archive is huge, containing over 120,000 images, equivalent to over 7,000 hours of observations.
It is also constantly growing, as thanks to our network of 10 robotic telescopes always observing, we acquire 350 hours of new observations every month.
With Telescope Live 3.0, this vast database of observations can become yours!
From today, you can avoid any waiting time, and you will be sure to get the data you want immediately.
Furthermore, you will be able to access observations obtained in the past, and you can do so at any time, without the need to book future ones.
This means that you will have access to all the data obtained to date since the beginning of Telescope Live.
Obviously, we will continue to collect new images, which will be available as soon as they are acquired. In such a way, our database will be populated more and more over time!
We are also setting higher quality thresholds for all our observations. Thanks to a new collaboration with PixInsight, we are implementing automatic quality checks within our pipelines.
Manual quality checks will also be performed on incoming images and the images acquired in the past. Old images that don't pass our quality thresholds will either be retaken at the earliest opportunity or removed.
But that is not all!
In fact, very soon, you will decide what to observe in the future.
Thanks to a new system of suggestions, you can decide what the future observations will be.
The New One-Click Observations
The One-Click Observations are not going away… In fact, they will stay!
The major difference is that you can now "grab" every single One-Click ever obtained.
You can grab all the past observations instantly and download them immediately, and you can also grab new ones as soon as they are acquired.
So, there is no need to book future observations, no need to wait!
And there's more…
Have you ever tried to collect several One-Clicks of the same target to obtain a larger dataset? With Telescope Live 3.0, it will be easier than ever!
We are also introducing a new feature called Observation Bundles.
Observation bundles are collections of One-Click Observations for the same object, obtained with the same telescope and filters.
The majority of bundles contain tens of hours of observations for a single object. You will be able to browse our collection of Bundles and grab them instantly.
Your New Credit Allowance
To make this possible, we are introducing a new credit system.
Each One-Click Observations from now on will have a value in credits.
Depending on your plan, you will have a monthly credit allowance that will allow you to grab One-Click Observations at any time.
The Bronze will get 5 monthly credits, the Silver 20 and the Gold 50.
Don't be skeptical! The value of each One-Click Observation and the new features have been designed to guarantee that you will be able to get a greater or equivalent number of images compared to what you get now.
These credits can be used to obtain both One-Click Observations and Advanced Requests.
As long as you are subscribed to Telescope Live, these credits will not expire, and you can accumulate them every month, spending them when and how you want.
The value of each One-Click is calculated based on the telescope used and the total exposure time.
You get a 30% discount for One-Click Observations acquired in the last 24 hours. When you grab an Observation Bundle you will get an additional 10% discount. Gold members also get a 20% discount on all the older One-Click Observations
Taking into account the discounts, the average value of a One-Click is only 0.6 credits.
This means that:
- A Bronze user will be able to get 8 One-Click observations on average, a 33% increase compared to Telescope Live 2.0
- A Silver user will be able to get 34 One-Clicks/month, that's a 120% increase!
- And Gold users will be able to grab 84 One-Clicks/month, and that's a 66% increase.
Prices of bundles will depend on the telescope and total integration time. For instance, 12h30m of total integration time of the Bubble Nebula obtained with SPA-1 will only cost you 6.3 credits! This is the best value for money you can find around…
Some of you might be asking what happens to the Pro Datasets?
The Pro Datasets have been deprecated in favor of the Observation Bundles. Future Pro Datasets will simply be new Observation Bundles. All the old Pro Datasets that you have already downloaded will be automatically assigned to you, so you don't have to purchase them again.
The REAL advantages of Telescope Live 3.0
So let me reiterate what the major advantages of this new platform are.
- With Telescope Live 3.0, you will have access to the largest and ever-growing archive of observations dedicated to astrophotography
- We are guaranteeing that you're able to get the observations, instead of paying even if you are not getting your images
- Almost everybody will find that they can get many more observations than in the past
- Never miss a One-Click Observation again
- Instant downloads, no more waiting – it's not a lottery anymore!
- Get the observations you really want, forget about the ones you don't need
- An easier-than ever interface
85% Of Beta Testers Loved It!
We had around 50 Beta Testers amongst all of you testing Telescope Live 3.0 over the last few weeks.
The vast majority of them is super happy!
You can check our dedicated page to read all the reviews that our Beta Testers left us by clicking here.
Coming on 19th November 2021
Telescope Live 3.0 will launch on 19th November 2021.
We will present the new platform in Paris, at Le Salon de l'Astronomie - "Les Rencontres Du Ciel et de l'Espace" between the 19th and 21th November.
Come and visit us if you are around!
Up till then, See you space cowboy…
Cover image credits: Nik Szymanek / Telescope Live