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AstroBlob

AstroBlob Club: remote astronomical observing for your association

Your association buys blobs and shares them out among its members. They book time on real telescopes around the world and observe from home, without buying or maintaining any equipment.

Free demo for your association, no strings attached.

Enter your association

Agrupación Astronómica de Madrid Asociación Astronómica Juan Pérez Mercader
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How it works

01

The association buys blobs

A package of whatever size the board decides, with no expiry date. You buy when you need to and only spend it when observing.

02

It shares them among members

From its own panel, per member or per working group. The board decides who gets how much, when and why.

03

Each member observes

They book time on a telescope, choose which object to look at and get their own images, ready to process.

What your association gains

Activities without buying equipment

No purchase, no dome, no insurance. Each telescope is kept in order by its owner; your members just observe.

You only pay for those who use it

The variable part of the fee comes from the members who logged in that month, and is billed in arrears.

Skies you don't have from here

Telescopes in both hemispheres: objects you cannot see from your own latitude, under the skies of professional observatories.

More chances of a clear sky

When it is cloudy here it may not be at another latitude. And with a high full moon, the hourly price drops.

Nobody is left out

Neither those who cannot afford their own kit, nor those who no longer drive out into the cold at night.

The board can see the spending

Usage reports per member and per working group, right in their panel and without asking anyone.

What your members can do

Not all your members want the same thing, and there is room for all of them here.

Deep sky

For the astrophotographer

Galaxies, nebulae and clusters with long exposures. They get their own frames to process.

Live (EAA)

For the group session

The image builds up on screen as you watch. Ideal for an activity with members and the public.

Planetary and solar

For classic observing

Planets, the Moon and the Sun. The usual outing, but with the kit you don't own.

Photometry

For doing real science

Light curves of asteroids and exoplanet transits. Data you can use in pro-am collaborations.

This is what your members take home

Images taken with telescopes in the network by members of associations like yours. None of them is stock.

C20, the Crescent
C20, the Crescent

A bubble of gas blown by a dying star in Cygnus, twenty-five light years across.

agustin · Astrocamp
M27, the Dumbbell
M27, the Dumbbell

What is left when a star like the Sun goes out. The first one ever found.

Miguel · Astrocamp
IC 5070, the Pelican
IC 5070, the Pelican

A hydrogen cloud where stars are born. Its outline is drawn by the dust in front.

agustin · Astrocamp
The Moon, live
The Moon, live

The best first target for anyone who has never used a telescope. It stacks as you watch.

AstroBlob · EAA session

The header image is M31, the Andromeda galaxy, taken by samueldl from the Bonilla observatory.

93 astronomy associations already catalogued

Find yours, see whether it already has AstroBlob Club and, if it does not, ask your board for it. We began with Spain and the directory keeps growing.

See the directory

Frequently asked questions

What associations usually ask before making up their minds.

Both. A small monthly fee for keeping the club open, and a variable part worked out from the members who logged into the platform that month. It is billed in arrears, once you already know how many there were. Blobs are separate, and you buy them when you need them.

It depends on the aperture of the telescope chosen: from a few euros to around twelve per hour on the largest instruments. Blobs are bought in packages —10 € buys 100 blobs— and each project adds a fixed one-blob fee.

Anyone who has done something on the platform during the month. A registered member who does not log in that month does not count towards the variable part of the fee.

No. A package bought today is still there two years later. You can buy when it suits you and share it out at whatever pace you like.

If the results are unusable because of an equipment fault, the blobs are refunded in full. There is an incident module on the platform to claim it, and if the telescope owner and you cannot agree, AstroBlob arbitrates and its decision is binding.

No, and we would rather say so plainly. Observing depends on the weather at the observatory and on the state of the instruments, neither of which we control. What we do is spread telescopes across different latitudes and hemispheres, so there is a better chance of clear sky somewhere.

Sharing out the blobs. From the admin panel you assign them to a member or a working group, by hand or with automatic rules, and from there each member organises themselves. The board can see usage per member and per group at all times.

No. Whoever brings a telescope keeps guaranteed priority on it: their members requests come ahead of any other club, you can book windows for your own activities outside the general queue, and switch it off for external use whenever you want.

Yes. In an electronically assisted astronomy session the image stacks up on screen as you watch, so it works for an activity with members or open to the public without waiting hours for a result. You book a time window on a specific telescope.

Seven days from when the project finishes. After that they are deleted from the server, so it is worth downloading them as soon as they arrive: they are yours to keep, but we do not store them indefinitely.

See all the questions

Try it with your members before deciding

We will set up a free demo: a real observing session with your association, no strings attached and without paying a cent. If it fits, we can talk numbers afterwards.

We match the package to the size of the association, whether you are twenty members or a thousand.