Schedule a reservation

A reservation lets you book a specific telescope at a set date and time. Your observation plan runs automatically when the reservation begins — so you can schedule a session and walk away.

Reading the calendar

The Reservations page shows a weekly calendar. Each column is one night, colour-coded so you can spot the best imaging conditions at a glance. Try the interactive night below — click any timeslot, and switch the moon between a dark and a bright night:

Aim to book inside the dark window — between the blue and purple dashed lines, where the sky is fully dark. Nights with lower moon illumination and less grey shading give the cleanest data.

Booking, step by step

1. Select your telescope

   From the Dashboard, click the telescope you want to book. In this example we select T72.

2. Open the Reservations page

   From the telescope's status screen, click Reservations in the top navigation bar.

3. Read the calendar

   Use the colour coding explained above to find a good night — aim for the dark window, low moon, and minimal grey shading.

4. Select a timeslot

   Click any timeslot to begin booking. Timeslots are available in 15-minute increments. In this example we pick Tuesday 16th at 20:15 — well within the dark window.

5. Review the New Reservation dialog

   A New Reservation dialog opens (shown below) with the start time already filled in from the timeslot you selected.

6. Set the duration and select your plan

   Choose a duration slightly longer than your plan's total exposure time to allow for telescope overhead — slewing, plate solving, and focusing. Once a plan is selected, the system estimates the total session time at the telescope's efficiency and warns you if the window is too short.

7. Confirm the reservation

   Click Reserve. Your reservation is scheduled, and the plan begins automatically at the chosen date and time.

Here's the dialog itself. With the 2-hour M 83 plan selected, T72's 90% efficiency gives an estimate of 2h 14m — comfortably inside the 2h 15m window. Try shortening the duration below the estimate to see the warning the app shows: