Imagine if you could stargaze in your house while your telescope is far away in Texas capturing stunning pictures of exploding stars. That’s what Jonathan Semeyn does on clear nights. “The conditions here aren’t great for astrophotography,” he says, talking about his tiny backyard with limited sky views. But thanks to a place called Starfront Observatories in central Texas, he had more than 800 hours of stargazing last year, way more than the 100 hours he gets at his home.

Starfront Observatories is located in Rockwood Texas, where people send their telescopes to explore the stars. During the day, it might look like boring sheds on old cow pasture land, but at night, the roofs slide open, and hundreds of telescopes appear like a robot army. The four founders, Dustin Gibson, Bray Falls, Nathan Hanks, and Josh Kim started this a little over a year ago. They met through a startup called Oursky and decided to create a business inspired by their passion for astronomy. Now, they have more than 550 telescopes in their facility, from tiny ones like security cameras to Gibson’s giant two foot mirror telescope. “It’s the most efficient way for astronomy to be done,” Gibson says.

The process of sending your telescope is very efficient. You send your telescope to Starfront Observatories in Texas, and a technician sets it up in a shed with fast internet, letting you operate it from home for a rental fee starting at $99 a month depending on the size of your telescope. You won’t have to deal with cloudy skies, city lights, or freezing cold winter.

Carlos Garcia from Miami had a passion for observing the night sky. He sent his $500 seestar telescope to Starfront Observations after getting frustrated with only 2 good nights a week in his city. Other places laughed at him or charged $800 a month, but Starfront Observations took it for $149. Now, small telescopes like that are a big part of their business. As more telescopes arrived, they got overwhelmed with questions so they made a discord group where thousands of astronomy fans help each other get data for better images.

The founders of Starfront Observatories want to make space accessible to everyone, not just rich people with fancy gear that have interests in astronomy. In the future, they hope schools and colleges will use it so kids can explore the universe without leaving class. “It becomes places in their mind, instead of just things in a textbook,” Gibson explained.

Starfront Observatories just bought more land for sheds and they might even open a site in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s changing how people look at stars, making the universe feel closer without having to step outside your house.