Terms & Conditions

 

Becoming a Roboscopes Member

Before you can book an Imaging Session, you need to sign-up for one of the following Roboscopes Membership options: –

• Silver membership is a free individual membership with our standard pay as you go NON Discounted hourly rates
• Gold membership is an individual membership with discounted hourly rates
• Platinum membership is a Professional/Group membership with discounted hourly rates
• Anyone over the age of 16 is permitted to become a member and can utilise our services
• Before purchasing a membership please make sure you have the funds for this commitment as it is a 12 month period
• You (the customer) are entering into a 12 month membership agreement.

All memberships auto renew after 12 month’s, from when you signed-up as a member and we will email you when your membership has been renewed.

Membership Upgrade

• Memberships cannot currently be upgraded from one to the other via our member's area. If you wish to upgrade then please use our contact form forund at the top of the site.
• A member of our team will happily help you with your request.

Cancellations

• All memberships are for a 12 month period
• * All memberships exluding hosting are paid on a yearly basis
• To reiterate, Roboscopes is is not a "monthly" membership
• Your membership can be cancelled at anytime but you may still be liable to pay for the full or partail remaining term of your membership
• Abuse of the membership system for short imaging runs would result in a ban from roboscopes

Membership Violations

• A member cannot share their membership or his login details with another party/person
• A proffesional body may not sign up and use the facilities of the Silver or Gold memberships
• Misuse of the membership system EG
  Persistent cancelations within short periods of the membership term

Syndicate & Hosting Memberships

• You will need to sign up to a (free) Silver standard membership before you can join a syndicate or be a hosting customer
• These are for 12 months period and have special conditions over and above our normal membership, please use our menu system for full details
• These are totaly seperate from our normal Silver, Gold & platinum membership

In using Roboscopes website, forum and booking portal you are agreeing to these terms & conditions and all company policies set out in this section as well as all sub menus.

• Roboscopes will have imaging teams/syndicates available where a group shares data from a dedicated telescope for a 12 month period.
• These are totaly seperate from our normal membership

Special conditions for syndicate users

• Syndicates will comprise of between 10 & 15 members
• The data is your property as a member of the syndicate group to use as you wish.
• You are not however allowed to share your syndicate membership with other parties.
• You are not allowed to permit other parties or users to sign into your account
• Syndicate membership is priced and paid for on a yearly basis
• It is the synicate member responsibility to choose the objects that are imaged
• Roboscopes cannot guarantee a specific quantity of data sets you will receive over the 1 years period as it all depends on what subjects as to how long we have to spend gathering data on each subject.
• Seasonal weather conditions will play a part in what as well as when data is collected, during wet seasons we may collect very little data for extended periods of 4-6 weeks. Although this is more than made up for during the long periods of clear skies we also receive. Overall we get around 200 clear nights over a given 12 month period.
• Our least productive times of year for collecting data, are Late Autumn/early Winter and again Late Winter/early Spring
• You will have a private area within our forum where you can chat amongst yourselves as well as plan your imaging year
• Individual Syndicate members can put forward image suggestions/choices within the forum area as well as use our new subbission form. Although we do suggest talking amongst yourselves to either decide on one member to submit images or another alternative to avoid repetition.
• Acts of god, weather events and other special circumstances may at times delay us from collecting data on your behalf.
• A syndicate member is not entitled to special rates within the standard Gold or Platinum membership unless they subscribe to them seperatly.

• Roboscopes have made available individual hosting packages for members to host their own equipment in our observatory  for a minimum term of 12 months
• These are totaly seperate from our normal membership

Special conditions for managed Hosting users

General

• Hosting comprises of one member who has sole use of their own supplied equipment. teams are also welcome but we will still reuire a signed contract for a designated person
• The data is your property to use as you deem fit.
• Roboscopes may from time to time use some of your images for marketing purposes, full credit will be given always.
• We would appreciate you mentioning if you aquired the data using "our" services
• Hosting is based on a 12 month period and paid for on a monthly basis.
• A minimum of 3 months notice is required to terminate your hosting contract (the minimum contract term is 12 Months)
• Full access to an individual booking page for your hosted pier will be given.
• Roboscopes cannot guarantee a specific quantity of data sets you will receive over the 1 years period as it all depends on what subjects as to how long we have to spend gathering data on each subject.
• Seasonal weather conditions will play a part in what as well as when data is collected, during wet seasons we may collect very little data for extended periods of 4-6 weeks. Although this is more than made up for during the long periods of clear skies we also receive. Overall we get around 200 clear nights over a given 12 month period.
• Our least productive times of year for collecting data, are Late Autumn/early Winter and again Late Winter/early Spring
• Global warming at times, can make normal seasonal norms erratic, this is also out of our control
• Acts of god, weather events and other special circumstances may at times delay us from collecting data on your behalf.
• A hosted member is not entitled to special rates within the standard Gold or Platinum membership unless they subscribe to them separately.
• Roboscopes observatory is fully insured against fire or theft of equipment, the facility has a state of the art perimeter alarm system and full starlight vision CCTV security system.
• Our observatory has full UPS backup and surge protection of all systems.

Roboscopes managed hosting responsibilities

• The observatory :)
• CCTV Secirity and monitored alarm & survelance
• Full insurance againt Fire & theft
• Dual weather safety back up with on-site "human" backup during working hours as well as 'out of hours" support
• Telescope power Switch Control device with pheriphial USB control
• IT & Power control cabinet with UPS and surge protection
• i7 PC with extra memory & storage
• NAS storage of data for 30 days
• An online booking portal for image acquisition
• On our frequent visits to our observatories we will perform collimation tweaks, general cleaning & maintenace including routine optical cleaning as part of your hosting package (specialist requests will be chargeable)
• Equipment delivery to Spain (charges may apply)
• Installation service (charges may apply)
• On site technical support (charges may apply)
• On site repair support (charges may apply)

Your repsonsibilities as the "Hosting" client

• It is your responsibility to have your equipment packaged and shipped to Roboscopes, Roboscopes can assist with this process, however charges will apply. (once installed we do not store or keep packing boxes, crates etc)
• Supply all power and USB cable (we can supply for a small charge)
• Roboscopes have technical assistance as well as weather redundancy for our observatory but cannot be held responsible for equipment damage due to adverse weather events 'Acts of God" etc that coincide with an "out of hour" technical outage.
• We strongly recommend you obtain specialist insurance for your equipment including lighning/surge cover.
• It is the Hosted member responsibility to choose the objects that are imaged, Sub lenghts, filter etc. 
• If/When you leave or terminate your hosting, it is your responsibility to have the equipment removed, boxed/packed and shipped back to yourself (Roboscopes can assist with this process, however charges will apply)

Breakdowns & maintenance etc

• All equipment maintenance is charged at €20 per hour with a minimum charge of 30 minutes.
• If any of your equipment has a catastrophic failure which results with the pier being inoperative for extended periods, while it is being repaired you will still be liable for your monthly hosting fees.
• IT, Network & Observatory breakdowns are roboscopes responsibility and we will repair replace equipment as required as part of your hosting package

Using the Roboscopes system

• All bookings are placed by the hour and multiples thereafter.
• All of your imaging session time periods need to be input in seconds The minimum imaging session time is 3,600 seconds (ie. 1 hour)
• Any viewing time selected over the hour will be ‘rounded up’ by our payment system to the next hour*
• There are no restrictions on the number of booking sessions a member can place or the number of scopes a member can use
• You can’t book your imaging run at a specific time. Our system will image your data at the optimum time
• Imaging runs will normally be completed within 7 to 21 days from the date of booking
• When Roboscopes has finished acquiring your data we will email you a download link to retrieve your data from our server.

* if you book an imaging session of 5,400 seconds, which is 1.5 hours, you will be charged for   2 hours imaging.

Weather & Extenuating Circumstances

Global circumstances out of our control, eg. severe weather fronts and other outside forces may occasionally cause unforeseen delays. As soon as these circumstances have passed, we will continue to gather your data as normal. Naturally we would discuss any delays with you directly, if it became necessary.

We will endeavour to post all current weather and warnings where possible, into the relevant section of our forum the "Warm Room"

Our Spanish Location has two wet seasons, one in Autumn and the other in late spring which tends to be the most erratic of the two. some years we has had an extended spring wet season that has meant the the whole of April has been lost. If this does happen it is unavoidable with current global weather trends like global warming.

Member’s Imaging Responsibilities

It is not roboscopes resposibility to check the quality of your data input into our booking form. It is the member’s responsibility to exercise due diligence when selecting your imaging parameters. See examples below.

• Obtaining correct coordinates or common object name for your subject
• Choosing sub lengths appropriate for your chosen subject
• Choosing enough imaging time appropriate for your chosen subject
• Ensuring the telescope you have chosen is suitable for the subject you wish to image.
• Checking your chosen subject is up and visible to image at any given point and suitable for the equipment FOV and image scale.
  E.g. - If you choose a winter object in June you will be waiting a few months for your subs, so please check properly before booking! We do not refund because you have not checked beforehand.
• Checking your subject falls within the horizon limits of your chosen telescope – Limits can be found on each Pier equipment page.

To help with this can can use a planetarium software on your PC, Phone Tablet etc or there is a free website called Telescopius that we highly recommend to all our customers. This website will give you the coordinates and short common name for your given subject.

Please set your observatory to our location:

Latitude:   38° 13' 10.89" North
Longitude:   6° 37' 54.32" West
Altitude:   560 metres
Timezone: Western Europe

Calibration Frames

Flats - Are supplied FOC in standard sub lengths as stated on the individual equipment pages.
Bias - Are supplied FOC in standard sub lengths as stated on the individual equipment pages.
Darks - Are supplied FOC in standard sub lengths as stated on the individual equipment pages.

If you require specific dark lengths to suit your desired sub lengths then please book them as part of your imaging run
and you will be charged accordingly. Alternatively if you have the knowledge and program you can scale longer Free 
standard darks down to suit your sub lengths.

Imaging Data Intellectual Property rights

The intellectual property rights of the data and the final processed image are owned by the member who;

• Chose the co-ordinates or subject common nameCalibrated the data
• Processed the data into the final image
• The data belongs to the member, so it's their decision to state how they acquired the data.

Cancellations

• Cancellation of an imaging run. If you notify us, by e/mail before the imaging run has started, you will receive a full refund.*
• If data acquisition has started, a refund is not possible.*

Roboscopes Responsibilities as the supplier

Imaging:

• To supply data to a high standard
• Supply data on time
• Supply Calibration files
• Keep customers informed of any delays

Data:

• Roboscopes have no rights to the data apart from ensuring data protection while it is stored on our server. However we will periodically check data for potential quality issues.
• We will never use your data anywhere without your express permission apart from for advertising roboscopes **
• Image data is stored on our server for 14 days from when we have finalised collecting the data.
• **From time to time user images may be shared on our social media accounts like Instagram etc. We will of course give credit to the member in the description.
• By using our forum or gallery section users are accepting that Roboscopes may use some of your proccessed images for advertising of our imaging services online and in print.

*Policies for Hosting and Syndicates may vary from these policies slightly due to the nature of those particular memberships

Prices

• Our prices are in EUROS as as its easier being based in the EU
• Unless you are a Euro credit or debit cardholder, your card issuer will automatically convert your currency into US Dollars during the payment process. They may charge a small amount for this.
• Membership fees are charges to your card on a monthly basis *
• All imaging runs are billed by the hour and subsquent hour there after

* All our Membership options are Annual Memberships even the "Free" Silver membership. Gold & Platinum membership fees are deducted in 12 monthly amounts from your chosen payment method – i.e Debit/Credit card

All memberships auto renew after 12 month’s, from when you signed-up as a member and we will email you when your membership has been renewed.

Payments

Payment types accepted -

• We accept most major debit & credit cards  as forms of payment.
• We do not accept Paypal, charge cards e.g. American Express, Diner Club etc.
• We do not accept bank transfers or cheques.

Refund for cancelling an imaging run

• You are entitled to cancel your imaging run at any time for a full refund only where data acquisition has not yet commenced.
• No refund will be given where data acquisition has commenced.

Membership Refunds

• Your Gold or platinum membership can be cancelled at anytime but you may still be liable to pay for the full or partial remaining term of your membership *

*These are not valid reasons!

• I have changed my mind
• I have decided I dont like imaging
• I thought I would try my luck and then cancel after a month
• I did not realise that I could not control the telescope myself

Syndicates

• These are 12 month none refundable terms except under extreme circustances, you may get a partial refund of your remaining synicate period but this is at "Roboscopes" discretion

Hosting

• This is a bespoke service that requires individual none standard work to set up and implement so is none refundable service within the 12 month period

Quality Control

• At Roboscopes we aim to deliver the best data and customer service that we can, at all times.
• We will aim at all times to deliver when possible within the 21 day window
• We will not image on evenings that are below par
• We do not image on full moon as the data in our expererience is allways compromised
• We will batch test cross sections of data to ensure consistency
• If you are unhappy with any aspect of what we do, then please get in touch and we will do our upmost to keep you happy.

Please click the button below to view our Privacy & GDPR Policy

The Warm Room

Please note by using The Warm Room you agree to the following rules set out below.

Forum Rules
1. No Spam / Advertising / Self-promote in the forums

• These forums define spam as unsolicited advertisement for goods, services and/or other web sites, or posts with little, or completely unrelated content. Do not spam the forums with links to your site or product, or try to self-promote your website, business or forums etc.
• Spamming also includes sending private messages to a large number of different users.
• DO NOT ASK for email addresses or phone numbers or your account will be banned permanently and your posts will be deleted.

2. Do not post copyright-infringing material

• Providing or asking for information on how to illegally obtain copyrighted materials is forbidden.

3. Do not post “offensive” posts, links or images

• Any material which constitutes defamation, harassment, or abuse is strictly prohibited.
• Material that is sexually or otherwise obscene, racist, or otherwise overly discriminatory is not permitted on these forums. This includes user pictures. Use common sense while posting.
• This is a web site for people of all walks of life.

4. Do not cross post questions

• Please refrain from posting the same question in several forums. There is normally one forum which is most suitable in which to post your question.

5. Do not PM users asking for help without asking beforehand

• Do not send private messages to any users asking for help. If you need help, make a new thread in the appropriate forum then the whole community can help and benefit.

6. Remain respectful of other members at all times

• All posts should be professional and courteous. You have every right to disagree with your fellow community members and explain your perspective.
• However, you are not free to attack, degrade, insult, or otherwise belittle them or the quality of this community. It does not matter what title or power you hold in these forums, you are expected to obey this rule.

General Posting Guidelines

We figured this was necessary because a lot of people come in and post threads without thinking, and without realizing that there is no possible way they could get help because of the way they posted the question. Here are some general guidelines.

1. Please use SEARCH first!
• There is a pretty good chance that unless you have some really odd or unique problem that it has been addressed on our forum before, please use the forum’s search feature first to see if there are already some good threads on the subject. It’s easy to search – just click the “Search” button at the top right of the page.


2. Be DESCRIPTIVE and Don’t use “stupid” topic names
• PLEASE post a descriptive topic name! Give a short summary of your problem IN THE SUBJECT. (Don’t use attention getting subjects, they don’t get attention and only annoy people).
• Remember when people help you, they are doing YOU a favor
• Be patient, help people out by posting good descriptions of what you need help with.

General Forum Questions

Am I allowed more than one account?
• No, there is no reason why you should have more than one account at The Warm Room. If you are banned from the forums, please do not create a new account. If you continue to create new accounts after you have been banned, your IP address will be blocked from the forums.
What happens if I break a rule?
• If you break a rule, then you will either be warned or banned. A ban of your user account may either be temporary or permanent.
• The administrators and moderators also have the right to edit, delete, move or close any thread or post as they see necessary, without prior warning.

What happens if I see a thread/post which has broken a rule?
• Please report the thread/post to the moderators or admin.

Where can I find out who is in charge?
• The Forum Moderators are displayed in every Forum.

Becoming a moderator
• If you play an active role in The Warm Room you may be offered the responsibility of being a moderator ☺

Imaging Comets & Minor bodies

Our system can image comets etc but we do have a few caveats, we use a minor bodies data base to image these types of objects and when combined with our automation this add certain limitations to what we can & can’t do

• We can only put the minor body or Comet where the data base says (normally in the middle)
• Our system is setup to track stars not the minor body itself
• We need to comet or minor body name and do not require any coordinates
• Moon avoidance constraints are not applied to comets due to immediacy of required capture
• All comets are set at the highest priority in our software which is level 4
• Early morning & evening comets, our equipment starts up & shuts down when the sun reaches -15º below the horizon
• Each 1 hour imaging block takes 1.15 to 1.30 hours when you factor in Focussing, plate solving, dithering and other behind the scenes housekeeping
• Comets obviously move to a different part of the sky every evening so please select a suitable imaging period (Total imaging time) to ensure we can capture your data in one night eg if a comet rises at 3am and the sun reaches -15 at 5.30am we cannot image image a 3 hour block
• Remember usually, you are not the only customers with a job request in the pier, we do have other customers imaging deep sky objects. Our automated algorithms need time to juggle multiple jobs, customers and personal requirements so be flexible when placing your order to allow enough breathing room for our system to accommodate your order
• We only charge for the imaging time, not for the Focussing, plate solving, dithering etc
• If our system does not collect the data due to unrealistic requirements of your behalf we will not refund your money