Getting to the stars is tough. We believe with a good idea, passion and planning we can help you achieve your designs. We offer a wide variety of services, though operating and managing optical telescopes is our focus.
- Observatory Design and Management – This is our primary focus – we offer a complete end-to-end service, from the proposal phase to purchasing, custom design and installation. Night Sky Concepts can also help your organization optimize, manage and train your staff in order to maximize your observatory investment. Some of our previous clients include: University of Massachusetts – Amherst, University of Connecticut, Dexter-Southfield School and Thayer Academy.
- Personal Observatory Consults – It’s easy to get lost in new equipment and the obscure software that is required to run it. For those that have an existing observatory and want to elevate your observing game or if you recently purchased equipment and need 1 on 1 support, we can do that as well. We offer hourly training sessions and remote support. On-site support is possible as well.
- Telescope Automation – Ready to get some sleep and wake up with more data than you have time to look at? Automation is possible, but can be daunting. We have experience with several different automated observing packages, including Voyager, theSkyX and ACP.
- Situational Awareness – Protecting your automated systems from weather is critical. We have considerable experience in weather safety systems and all sky cameras, with installs ranging from MIT to state parks in MA and several smaller K12 observatories. Our philosophy is you can never be too careful!
- Space surveillance / SDA / SSA – Whatever your target of observation is, whether it be stars or satellites, you have to start with a solid foundation, select the right equipment and insure that the customer receives the level of performance they expected. I have several years of experience in the defense community, working closely with engineering teams to craft the optimal ground station for space domain operations. I have worked with MIT Lincoln Laboratory on several projects.
- Light Pollution – Learning from what often goes wrong in municipal lighting improvement projects, Tim went all-in in Pepperell, MA. From the initial kick-off meeting, to presenting to town government, designing a streetlight demonstration featuring different lighting packages, conducting public surveys to inform key decision makers and then quantitatively assessing the outcome – we know how to avoid increases in light pollution and preserve your night sky. The end result is that Pepperell, MA has one of the most environmentally friendly streetlight programs in the country, saving 81% of our electricity and minimizing the harmful blue light in an eco-sensitive community. We are currently investigating the optimal lighting solutions for observatories.
- Classroom or Control Room Design and Lab Operations – Over the last 2 decades I have had the opportunity to manage several classroom spaces, particularly in the observatory, physical sciences and planetarium domain. I recently completed a state-of-the-art classroom at MIT to facilitate remote telescope observations, communications, situational awareness, outreach and education. This skill set can easily be adapted to a variety of locations, including college campuses, field sites, military bases and public science institutions and museums.