Hey everyone,
Let me start by saying thank you. Whether you've been posting here since the days of dial-up or just wandered in last week after googling “what telescope should I buy?”, you're part of what makes Cloudy Nights special. For over 20 years, this community has grown into something far beyond what any of us could have predicted. And we owe every bit of that growth to you.
Cloudy Nights now sees over 500 million page views a year. Yeah, I had to double-check that number, too. That’s more than a million pages a day being read by people who love telescopes, optics, gear debates, and the eternal “should I buy now or wait for the next version?” struggle. We’re not Reddit—but in the world of astronomy, we’re basically the mothership.
With that kind of traffic comes a surprising reality: it costs real money to keep the lights on. Hosting, security, backups, maintenance, upgrades—it’s a long list. And until now, we’ve done all of that without charging you a dime. No subscriptions. No paywall. No “premium tier” nonsense.
But the time has come to do something I never thought we’d need: we’ve introduced a few ads on the site. You’ll now see some banners on the right-hand side and a thin ad every five posts or so in the forums. Nothing flashy, nothing autoplaying, and definitely nothing designed to ruin your experience.
The truth is, I want Cloudy Nights to remain free for everyone—now and always. We didn’t want to turn to donations, or make this a “pay to post” site. Instead, we’re letting advertisers help cover the costs of keeping this community online and growing.
I know some longtime users may be skeptical, and that’s fair. Change is hard, especially when you've been part of something for so long. But I promise: we’re doing this in the least intrusive way possible, with the sole goal of preserving what we’ve built here together.
Cloudy Nights has never been about me or Astronomics. It’s been about a shared love for the sky, for optics, for the gear that brings it all a little closer. It’s about people helping people—debating eyepieces, sharing first light reports, or just posting that once-in-a-lifetime astrophoto.
So thank you again—for your patience, your passion, and your posts. Here’s to the next twenty years under the stars.
Clear skies,
Michael Bieler
Astronomics / Cloudy Nights
P.S. If an ad ever does something weird or breaks the forum layout, let me know.
