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Scope Time · for astronomy clubs

Your club’s telescope,
actually shared

Right now, scheduling your shared Seestar means emailing a coordinator who keeps a spreadsheet. Scope Time replaces that inbox with a reservation calendar built on real dark windows — and gets each member connected to the scope when their night comes.

Join the club pilot — freeSee the live demo calendar

Club pricing TBD · pilot clubs run free while we shape the plan

Email → spreadsheet
how most clubs schedule today
One coordinator
the single point of failure
“Who has it tonight?”
the question that never dies
How it works

From newsletter link to first light in four steps

Step 1
Share one join link

Paste a club link in your newsletter. Members create a free account and land in the club workspace as members — no waitlist, no coordinator data entry, no seat charges.

Step 2
Members book real nights

The calendar shows every night's actual dark window, moon phase, and cloud outlook. Two clicks books it. Quotas, notice periods, and your approval queue are enforced automatically.

Step 3
Access unlocks at slot start

Fifteen minutes before their window, the member's reservation reveals your club's connection instructions — VPN, app password, bridge URL. Only to them, only during their slot, every view logged.

Step 4
Their frames, their library

Everything captured during a member's slot is attributed to them — graded, plate-solved, in their own Astryx library by morning, with a night report to wake up to.

Built for how clubs actually run

The coordinator retires the spreadsheet. The members get more sky.

Night slots, not time blocks

A reservation is dusk-to-dawn computed from astronomical darkness at your site for that date. No time-zone confusion, no half-booked evenings.

Weather releases

Clouded-out nights auto-release before the slot starts and don't count against the member's quota. The booking calendar shows the forecast up front.

Coordinator controls

Optional approval queue with each member's usage at a glance, per-member quotas, minimum notice, booking horizon — or fully self-serve if that's your club's style.

Blackouts

Block maintenance windows, star parties, and monsoon season in one action. Blackouts and bookings can never overlap — it's enforced by the database, not by hope.

Calendar feed

A read-only ICS feed drops every booking into Google Calendar or your club website — member names redacted to initials.

Power gating

With a smart plug, the scope is powered only around booked slots — on 30 minutes before, off after the session. No more "someone left it running all week."

No-show handling

If a member never claims their slot, the night is released for others — and still counts against the no-show's quota, so reservations stay honest.

Any telescope, any workflow

Astryx brokers whatever access your club uses today — VPN + vendor app, seestar_alp, a remote desktop. Nothing to re-architect on day one.

Every member gets a real astrophotography workspace — their frames, graded and plate-solved, the morning after their night.

Scope Time isn’t just a calendar. Frames captured during a member’s slot are attributed to them automatically, they get the same night reports, quality grading, and planning tools every Astryx user has — and when they eventually buy their own telescope, their data is already home.

On the roadmap: the control roomIn development

The next phase removes the VPN entirely: an in-browser control room, tunneled securely through the on-site Astryx agent to your Seestar’s seestar_alp bridge. Pick a target from Tonight’s Picks, go to it, start stacking, watch the preview — with a sun-safety interlock, a coordinator kill switch, and every command audited. Pilot clubs get it first.

Run your club’s scope on Scope Time

Club pricing is TBD while we finish the plan with our pilot clubs — pilots run free. Tell us about your club and your shared scope, and we’ll set you up.

[email protected] Demo calendar — no sign-up

Club questions, answered

What is Scope Time?
Scope Time is Astryx's shared-telescope scheduler for astronomy clubs. Members reserve nights on the club's telescope from a calendar; Astryx blocks the time, enforces quotas and approval rules, releases clouded-out nights automatically, and reveals the connection details only to the member whose slot is active.
How is a booking slot defined?
A slot is a night — computed from real astronomical darkness at your observing site for that exact date. Booking August 14 means dusk to dawn on August 14 at your site, not an arbitrary block of clock hours. Double-booking is impossible: the calendar is enforced at the database level.
How do members get access to the telescope during their slot?
The coordinator stores the connection instructions once (VPN details, seestar_alp or vendor-app credentials, whatever your club uses today). Astryx encrypts them and reveals them only to the reservation holder, from 15 minutes before their slot until it ends. Every view is logged. Optionally, a smart plug keeps the scope powered only around booked slots.
What happens when a night is clouded out?
If your policy sets a cloud threshold, Astryx checks the forecast before each slot and automatically releases hopeless nights — the member is notified and the night does not count against their quota. No-shows are handled too: if a member never opens their access details, the night is released for others (but still counts against their quota).
Do members need to pay for Astryx?
No. Members join through a club link, get a free account, and can book scope time immediately. Club members don't count against the workspace's seat limits. The frames they shoot during their slot are attributed to them and appear in their own Astryx library, graded and plate-solved.
Which telescopes does it work with?
The scheduler and access brokering work with any shared telescope — Seestar, Vespera, Dwarf, or a classic rig — because Astryx brokers the access method your club already uses. Seestar setups running the community seestar_alp bridge are the best-supported path, and a full in-browser control room for them is on the roadmap.
What does it cost for a club?
Club pricing is being finalized. Early clubs join the pilot program free while we shape the plan together — the pilot includes the full scheduler, access brokering, and member onboarding via join links.

Coordinating a shared scope today? Read the field guide: Running a Club Telescope People Actually Get to Use

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