I enjoy using remote subscription imaging especially living in a Bortle 8 zone, which I why I do mostly solar. Also I have health issues and like my sleep. You get to use very nice scopes from dark sky sites.
Here is my impression on remote imaging. As I say I use it almost daily and check their solar scope daily
The downside? It can get expensive.
Some sites allow more control than others, for example iTelescope from what I have found has the most control over scope and camera and what filters are used. Slooh has "total" control of the scope but limited control of the camera and filters. Roboscope and Insight you request a target and they determine the best time to image it, Roboscope does give total control over exposure and filters as well as darks.
Slooh costs me $300 a year, that is for unlimited imaging runs up to 50 minutes at a time as well as up to 50 minutes of piggybacking on someone else's "mission" (imaging run). Each run is 5 minutes, except on the 20 inch which are 10 minute runs. you can schedule 5 at a time, either in a row or scattered through that night or the next 7 days so if you want a specific object and want to do a 50 minute imaging run you schedule 5 missions on the 20" in a row, to guarantee the time you often have to schedule for the next evening. once you schedule your 5 missions you cannot do another one until the first finishes but as soon as it runs you can schedule another.
Other remote scopes I have used are
Roboscopes - anywhere from $18-$30 an hour - I spent $18 there you only get fits
Insight Observatory - anywhere from $15 to $25 for 20 MINUTES, that is $45 to $75 an hour! I spent $15 there, the give a JPG, TIF and fits files, they are well processed and for that price they should be.
Both Roboscopes and Insight don't allow you to schedule the scope or control it or watch it in real time you have to submit your request and then up to 30 days later you get the results.
My take away is that the images might be nice BUT I am not controlling the scope or the time of capture or dealing with the weather and satellites, I simply choose a target and in 1 to 4 weeks I get the images. I might as well download them from the Hubble or the net.
With Slooh the only thing I don't do is set up the scope. I have to decide on the target or the coordinates, then I have to determine when the object will be visible from the observatory - trying to get it just before or just after the meridian, then have to look at the weather, the wind clouds dust humidity and moon light. can even use Stellarium to determine when satellites might be passing through the field of view. Then decide what filters to use, either LRGB or just L, and then the time of the exposures from 5 minutes to 50 minutes. Finally the image is taken in real time, I can watch the image as it develops on the screen, can even see if it gets a plane or satellite or what is aggravating wind blown stars. Then I am given the raw fits images for my to work.
Slooh does provide a PNG image to give a rough idea and I do mean rough, of what you captured but it is not a great an image. It isn't a finished image
at a guess I have done at least 400 hours of imaging in the last year using SLOOH
"sometimes having is not so pleasing as wanting, it is not logical but it is true" Commander Spock
"Free advice is seldom cheap" Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #59
I might not always be right, but I am never wrong! Once I thought I was wrong but I was mistaken!
