Mission Statement:


The mission of After-Hours Astronomy Inc (“AHA”) is to make the night sky more accessible, engaging, and enjoyable for everyone—no matter their background or experience. Our strategy for addressing this mission is twofold. The first part of this strategy is to provide late-night technical support during nighttime hours when astronomers are actually using their equipment. This removes the main barrier to service faced by traditional retail astronomy outlets that are only open 9am to 5pm, which in turn means less time wasted troubleshooting and more time enjoying the night sky! The second piece of our mission strategy is the curation of premier night sky tours and events that utilize AHA’s own selection of world-class equipment. These events will include small-group excursions to dark sky sites, private events like weddings or corporate retreats, astronomy skills workshops, pop-up sidewalk astronomy, culinary experiences under the stars, and various creative or educational activities with an astronomy theme or backdrop.

Technical Support:

After-Hours Astronomy was founded by a long-time customer service provider to the retail astronomy industry. After many years of traditional 9-5 technical support, AHA was founded with the specific goal of (finally) providing a late-night option for astronomers and astrophotographers who need technical support while their gear is actually set up under the night sky… as intended.

While all of the traditional retail outlets close at the end of their work day, After-Hours Astronomy offers appointment-only, one-on-one technical support between the hours of 9pm - 12am (Mountain Time). No more waiting around for the skies to clear up just to test some new advice! Now you can work through your issues in real time.

Whether you’re just starting your journey in this hobby or a seasoned hobbyist, After-Hours Astronomy will be happy to help with all your technical support needs. Contact Us today with any questions, or feel free to book an appointment at your convenience.

We look forward to working with you!

Events and Excursions:

In response to the ever-increasing public interest in this hobby, After-Hours Astronomy has expanded to include private event services, curated night-sky tours, and organized excursions to various dark-sky locations around Colorado and the Southwestern United States.

We can provide a wide variety of astronomical gear for any number of personalized experiences, and we provide the knowledgeable staff capable of guiding you and your friends, family, or guests on an incredible tour of the night sky. We have a variety of upgradable options, and we’re happy to work with any venues or event planners that may already be taking the lead on any existing plans.

In addition to our private events, we also offer occasional workshops, public pop-ups, and occasional partnerships with local businesses. Feel free to Contact Us today for more information, or keep an eye out here and on our social media pages for upcoming events!

More about After-Hours Astronomy

Qualifications and experience:

After-Hours Astronomy was founded by Isaac Garfinkle, a passionate astrophotographer who has worked in the retail astronomy industry since 2016 providing technical assistance to fellow hobbyists. Isaac’s professional experience includes nearly a decade of work in the industry, including as a technical support specialist for High Point Scientific, as the customer service manager for Stellarvue Telescopes, and most recently through work with Agena Astro’s marketing department. Isaac also spent much of this time serving as assistant director for the Grand Mesa Observatory in Whitewater, CO. This remote facility included private, government, and academic facilities under bortle 1-2 skies, and served as a nonprofit educational facility and fantastic star party location. Throughout all of this experience, as well as countless personal conversations and star parties, Isaac has encountered just about every technical problem imaginable in this field. And more importantly, he has a proven track record of success with all types of equipment and clients.

Isaac is also a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) currently employed as a school therapist during normal waking hours. While this rarely overlaps his astronomical interests, it has proven invaluable in regards to providing support of all kinds in a calm, engaging, and solution-focused manner. Isaac’s work as a therapist was also one of the driving forces behind starting After-Hours Astronomy, as he understands just how powerful the frustration can be that comes with learning such a complex hobby. At the end of the day (night?), the goal at After-Hours Astronomy is to make sure everyone can enjoy this incredible hobby. So whether that means providing technical support or giving newcomers a taste of dark skies and great equipment, you can be sure that your astronomical interests are in very good hands.

The benefits of troubleshooting After-Hours:

When it comes to technical support services for astronomy equipment, most of us with experience can attest such complex, delicate, and highly individualized setups can encounter countless issues that capable of plaguing even the most seasoned astronomers. These issues range from simple things like a bad cable or outdated driver all the way up to complex issues like dead encoders, mechanical failures, or corrupted system files messing up some software. Troubleshooting these issues can be frustrating, time-consuming, and just plain old difficult to do remotely. And to make matters worse, this equipment is sensitive enough that some errors can be made worse by excessive tinkering. While others don’t seem to have any justifiable cause despite tearing your whole system down to its components.

So what does this all have to do with late-night technical support services? Well, apart from solar imaging rigs, all of this is generally diagnosed and tested at night after your favorite retail outlets and manufacturers have gone home for the day. This typically leads to long, multi-day, tag-team sessions of back-and-forth troubleshooting, and that’s assuming you have enough clear skies (and enough free nights) to keep working on the problems night after night. Instead, After-Hours Astronomy can help you tackle all of these same issues in real-time, at night, whenever you time and weather cooperate.

More than just technical support!

In addition to our late-night technical support services, After-Hours Astronomy also offers a variety of in-person events and services! We have a world-class collection of telescopes and astrophotography equipment, and with all manner of add-ons and customization options we can tailor any experience to suit your needs, preferences, schedules, and locations. If you’re looking to experience truly dark skies we offer small group excursions to dark sites all around the state. And for those looking to plan an event a little closer to home, After-Hours Astronomy can set up anywhere you want with a clear view of the sky! From corporate functions and music festivals to weddings, birthdays, and more… we’d love to help make your next event truly out of this world!

After-Hours Astronomy will also be offering periodic (small group) workshops, as well as pop-up events with local businesses and event partners. Many of our workshops will on various technical aspects of astronomy and astrophotography, but we will also be looking to include creative events, meditation and mental health workshops, and culinary experiences with local chefs, restaurants, distilleries, breweries, and more! If you have a special request for such an event, or if you would like to partner with After-Hours Astronomy for a pop-up event of this nature, please Contact Us today.

Hands-On Experience Guaranteed with the Following Equipment:

Hardware:

  • Astro-Physics

  • Losmandy

  • Pegasus Astro

  • Sky-Watcher

  • Warp-Astron

  • Celestron

  • Orion + Meade

  • Stellarvue

  • William Optics

  • Takahashi (*Limited support for Takahashi reflectors)

  • Astro-Tech

  • Lunt Solar Scopes

  • GSO (and all the various company-specific rebranded products)

  • ZWO cameras and accessories

  • QHY cameras and accessories

  • PlayOne Astronomy cameras and accessories

  • RisingCam and ToupTek cameras and accessories

  • SBIG Cameras and Accessories

  • Atik + QSI Cameras

  • Starlight Instruments Cameras + Accessories

  • Sony, Canon, Pentax, and Nikon DSLRs and mirrorless cameras

  • Starlight Instruments Feather Touch Focusers, motors, and accessories

  • MoonLite Focusers

  • Roll-off roof observatories

  • SkyShed POD Observatories

  • Technical Innovations observatories

  • Various brands of mini-PCs (NUC, MeLe, Beelink, etc…)

Software:

  • N.I.N.A.

  • PHD2 Autoguiding

  • Sequence Generator Pro

  • Prism v10

  • SharpCap v3.x

  • FireCapture

  • Stellarium

  • SkySafari Pro (and other mobile planetarium apps)

  • ZWO ASIAir

  • ASCOM Drivers (all brands)

  • Native driver installations

  • Windows (7, 10, and 11)

  • Mac OSX (not ideal but we’ll make it work)

  • Basic setup, installation, and first steps with PixInsight

  • Basic setup, installation, and first steps with Photoshop

  • AnyDesk

  • Google Meet (preferred) or Zoom