Remote telescope farm helps far away stargazers beat light pollution

By day, a row of plain-looking sheds in sleepy Rockwood, Texas, looks like nothing more than a place to store farm tools and feed. But when the sun dips below the horizon, their roofs peel back in unison to reveal a hidden network of hundreds of telescopes.

The so-called telescope farm is the brainchild of amateur astronomer Bray Falls, who turned his passion into a business when he co-founded the company Starfront Observatories 18 months ago.

"It has not gotten old yet. It's so cool, every single time," Falls said of the transforming sheds.

Starfront rents space to customers who ship their telescopes to the farm and control them via the internet from the comfort of their homes. The remote location allows amateur stargazers to take stunning pictures they wouldn't be able to from home, because the sky in Rockwood is much darker than where they live — helping solve one of amateur astronomers' biggest problems: light pollution.

The night sky has gotten harder to see due to a 10% yearly increase in light pollution over the past decade, according to a 2023 study published in the journal Science.

Starfront's customers live all over the world, including Europe, Asia and the Middle East, Falls said.

Chuck Ayoub in suburban Detroit has a garage full of telescopes, but he hardly uses them anymore after shipping one out to Texas.

"The big difference are the dark skies. I am 20 minutes from downtown Detroit, and that light pollution is a killer," Ayoub said.

Most nights, Ayoub livestreams his telescope feed to his large social media following. There's also a small camera at the base so he can see his telescope in action.

From the Starfront property, Falls and others are identifying celestial objects no one has ever seen before, such as a photo he calls the "Crown of Thorns" nebula. The discoveries are furthering our understanding of space, even as our ability to see it is fading.

When asked about the threat posed by light pollution, Falls said, "It really prevents people from dreaming, like seeing what's above them, just awe. You get the tingles, you get the goosebumps."

But now, it's a feeling you can get — even from your basement in Detroit.

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