Rent a Dark Ranger Telescope
Sorry, if you found this page. We hope we didn't get your hopes up too much. Our telescope rental program has been suspended until we can get more support from either our insurance company and/or product placement from a telescope manufacturer. If you are optimistic like we are send us note and we'll put you on the "we have good news list." When we get good news.
For Me, a 2-3 hour Telescope Tour is not enough!
Understood! Indeed, we're not entirely sure the rest of our lives will be enough time under Utah sky. So, if you think our regular 2-hour public telescope tours or the 3-hour private telescope tours aren't enough telescope time for you, we'll let YOU rent OUR telescopes overnight!
TLDR! Just tell me how to get my hands (and eye) on one of those scopes!
Okay. Here's the 7 easy steps:
1. Scroll down and note the name of the telescope you want to rent.
2. Read (cuz there will be a test in the questionnaire that follows booking) our damage policy at bottom of page.
3. Choose your rental agreement by clicking the corresponding "book now" button.
4. Buy additional "add-ons" to chose a 'location fee': whether you'll use the telescope(s) here ($11) or transport elsewhere ($21).
5. Enter choice of scope (increase count for any additional nights you might want)
6. Enter credit card information, etc.
7. Answer questionnaire
1. Scroll down and note the name of the telescope you want to rent.
2. Read (cuz there will be a test in the questionnaire that follows booking) our damage policy at bottom of page.
3. Choose your rental agreement by clicking the corresponding "book now" button.
4. Buy additional "add-ons" to chose a 'location fee': whether you'll use the telescope(s) here ($11) or transport elsewhere ($21).
5. Enter choice of scope (increase count for any additional nights you might want)
6. Enter credit card information, etc.
7. Answer questionnaire
Rental Agreement Option 1:"Attend"
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Tues, Thurs, Sat. & Sun
(when not already booked) 4-ticket minimum booking, but 50%-off rental fee Any night of the Year
Pending approval of your questionnaire. |
What's with the Weird Names?
Telescopes are different enough that it is easy to imagine their pros & cons as personalities. So as Douglas Adams fans, all our telescopes are named for characters and things from Douglas Adams's "5-part trilogy" The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (H2G2).
P.S. An eponym is the original for which something/someone is similarly named. Where namesake is the thing/person named after the eponym. Yeah... we didn't know that distinction either...
P.P.S But never mind that frivolity! Here's what REALLY matters...
P.S. An eponym is the original for which something/someone is similarly named. Where namesake is the thing/person named after the eponym. Yeah... we didn't know that distinction either...
P.P.S But never mind that frivolity! Here's what REALLY matters...
How do I choose?
Asking an astronomer to recommend a telescope is like inviting somebody to tell you about their genealogy. Your are always going to get more information than you want, and less actionable help than you need. In the meantime here's the basics.
A) Aperture ALWAYS wins, it's the only size that really matters.
B) Magnification is overrated. High power magnification = low contrast and narrow field of view = hard to use
C) "dumb" means you'll have to find objects yourself. Don't Panic! We can teach you. And so can a good phone app.
D) "goto" means 'smart.' The scope helps you find objects... IF you align it carefully! We can teach you that too.
E) No, you don't have to love H2G2 to enjoy the hobby of astronomy... but it helps. :-)
A) Aperture ALWAYS wins, it's the only size that really matters.
B) Magnification is overrated. High power magnification = low contrast and narrow field of view = hard to use
C) "dumb" means you'll have to find objects yourself. Don't Panic! We can teach you. And so can a good phone app.
D) "goto" means 'smart.' The scope helps you find objects... IF you align it carefully! We can teach you that too.
E) No, you don't have to love H2G2 to enjoy the hobby of astronomy... but it helps. :-)
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Marvin Rental Fee: $42 / night Replacement Cost: $5200
Make & Model: Celestron C-11 Design / Mount: SCT on Nexstar GPS goto forked mount Aperture: 11" Focal length: 2800mm Usable Magnification Range: 70-350x Optimal Targets: Galaxies, globular clusters, star-birth & star-death nebulae, planets, and double stars, H2G2 Eponym: Marvin is the Paranoid Android with a brain the size of a planet (some kind of cloud processor maybe?). When properly motivated he can be convinced to shake off his eternal depression to become a highly capable genius. Analogy: Our Marvin can also be a bit problematic. His optics are great, but his programming is a little out of date. He comes from the era of when computers were dumber and humans were smarter. So as long as one reads his boot-up instructions carefully, Marvin will show you the Universe as well as any modern goto telescope, he just won't do it with quite as much enthusiasm. Eddie Rental Fee: $42 / night Replacement Cost: $5200
Make & Model: Celestron C-11 Carbon Fiber Design / Mount: SCT on Nexstar GPS goto forked mount Aperture: 11" Focal length: 2800mm Usable Magnification Range: 70-350x Optimal Targets: Galaxies, globular clusters, star-birth & star-death nebulae, planets, double stars, and our Sun H2G2 Eponym: Eddie is the Heart of Gold's annoyingly helpful and disgustingly cheerful ship-board computer. Eddie is overjoyed to open and close automatic doors for his biological crew and yet waste precious time with pleasantries when he reporting inbound missiles. Analogy: Jaded geeks and especially astronomers find cute technology annoying. Yet if you are an inexperienced telescope user, a charmingly user-friendly telescope might be exactly what you want. Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz Rental Fee: $31 / night Replacement Cost: $1500
Make & Model: Orion SkyQuest Design / Mount: Dobsonian "dumb scope" Aperture: 12" Focal length: 1500mm Usable Magnification Range: 40-200x Optimal Targets: Galaxies, open star clusters and star-birth nebulae H2G2 Eponym: Jeltz is the Hitchhiker-hating, Vogon captain whose poetry is as destructive as his constructor fleet. Analogy: Known as Commander Jeltz to his friends (if he had any), this is a BIG and simplistic bruiser of a telescope. It slews and focuses like the ancient bureaucrat he is -- manually, at one point it had a guidance system but when it inevitably broke there was no money in any future budget to repair it. So if you listen closely you might just hear some horrible poetry as you steer it about the sky. But those aren't sounds of frustration so much as rationalization, because for Jeltz, like any good bureaucrat, the work is it's own reward. Zaphod Rental Fee: $31 / night Replacement Cost: $1500
Make & Model: Celestron C-6 & Explore Scientific AR-102 Design / Mount: Double-scope on Twlight II mount "dumb scope" Aperture: 6" & 4" Focal length: 1500 mm & 663mm Usable Magnification Range: 35-175x, 16-80x Optimal Targets: Planets, open star clusters, and double stars, our Moon H2G2 Eponym: "Zaphod is just zis guy you know..." with 2-heads and 3 arms. He's a narcissistic, impulsive, hippie-cad, of an adventurer but otherwise a likeable guy. Zaphod became the Galactic President so he could steal the Heart of Gold at her dedication. With that ultimate spaceship he could have become the ultimate playboy, but instead, and perhaps partly out of boredom, he chose to chauffeur Ford, Arthur, and Trillian about on their adventures. Analogy: Zaphod is the Dark Ranger's "travel scope." All of the DRTT scopes travel, but only Zaphod has spent time in the bilge of whitewater rafts, and the baggage compartment of boats and airplanes. His double-headed is not just bizarre, it's also highly functional. When working a big crowd he can handle two lines of stargazers. For smaller groups we configure him for simultaneous high power and low power views of the same object. |
Damage Policy
We do not require a damage deposit. But take note of the replacement value ascribed to each telescope. Make no mistake, if our telescope breaks while in your care, be it by carelessness, accident, or just bad luck, we will bill you using your credit card for the repair or replacement (whichever is cheaper) of the damaged telescope. We will "eat" the cost of incidental wear and tear issues (telescope cleaning and routine maintenance) but if any replacement parts have to ordered or if labor is required beyond our skill level, we will pass on those expenses to you the responsible party.
Yeah, But What if it's Cloudy?
Though cloudy days are not uncommon, we average 300 clear nights per year! In this part of the world, daytime weather has little bearing on what will happen later at night. So, we the Dark Rangers follow the 30 (% cloudy) / 70 (% clear) rule... But we are experts at working sucker-holes (opening and closing holes in the clouds) and so we don't expect you to have as much success on a marginal night.
So we offer our 94% REFUND (6% is retained for credit card transaction fees) on the rental fee (we keep 'location fee' regardless) if the sky is never more than 50% clear for any 1 full hour of time before 11:59PM the night of your rental, or if you prefer, we will let you use the telescope for the next night for no additional charge.
If our forecast http://www.darkrangertelescopetours.com/weather.html suggests there's no hope for clear sky the night of your telescope rental, we'll contact you via your email address or by text message to the mobile/cell with regard to advanced cancellation.
So we offer our 94% REFUND (6% is retained for credit card transaction fees) on the rental fee (we keep 'location fee' regardless) if the sky is never more than 50% clear for any 1 full hour of time before 11:59PM the night of your rental, or if you prefer, we will let you use the telescope for the next night for no additional charge.
If our forecast http://www.darkrangertelescopetours.com/weather.html suggests there's no hope for clear sky the night of your telescope rental, we'll contact you via your email address or by text message to the mobile/cell with regard to advanced cancellation.
