Dark Sky - Observatory Booking and Night Operations Platform with a Red-Light Console

Tonight, the go/no-go decision, bookings, booking detail and the imaging queue. Every one of the 29 demo bookings opens its own detail page, with rebook and refund panels.

Cloud above 70% at session start, gusts above 45 km/h (the 1 m telescope's limit is 40 km/h) and humidity above 90%, shown against the hourly forecast. It is advice only: the duty astronomer makes the call, by 17:00.

One switch turns every colour to deep red on black and stops animations. Status chips carry a shape and a word (Go, Go with warning, No-go, Pending), so they still read without green or red.

4 sessions tonight, 7 telescopes, 19 imaging requests across every queue stage, 9 staff users, 6 pickup points and an 11-hour forecast by cloud layer.

One Weather Call, Every Guest Affected

When the call is no-go, every guest booked that night has to hear it in their own language, minibus pickups have to be cancelled with the contractor, and each booking gets a free rebooking or a full refund under the weather policy. Done by phone, that took hours.

Screens That Ruin Night Vision

A phone at full brightness undoes the dark adaptation guides and guests need at the telescope. The console cannot use white or blue after dark, and status that relies on green or red stops reading under red light.

Many Channels, Fixed Telescopes

Bookings come from the website, GetYourGuide and Viator, resellers, phone and the desk, while capacity is set per telescope: 10 guests at each visitor telescope and 8 at the 1 m. A telescope out of service cuts a session's capacity on the day.

Imaging on Shared Time

Remote imaging competes with tours and the research programme for the same telescopes, and each request has its own altitude, moon separation and date window. Credits are charged by the minute and results are FITS files, scheduled and recorded in UTC while tours run on local time.