Astrospheric offers astronomical societies and their members a special edition which makes much of Astrospheric Professional's data available at no cost.

To qualify for the Astro Society edition, a society must fulfill certain requirements. These requirements serve to demonstrate the society's legitimacy and level of activity, as well as to introduce new users to Astrospheric. By doing so, the program's operating costs are covered.

Societies that are unable to fulfill the requirements are invited to use Subspace for free, allowing easy communication and planning with their members. Furthermore, members can still access the additional data available in the Astro Society edition by purchasing an Astrospheric Professional subscription. ($2.99/month or $29.99/year USD before taxes)

The purpose of this document is to answer FAQs about the requirements.

These are the current requirements as of 2023. It is possible for a previously entitled society to lose their Astro Society edition entitment if they stop meeting any of the requirements. These requirements augment the standard privacy policy and terms of service for our customers.

• The group must represent an official society or club in the US or Canada.

  This means that the society has an official website, and members pay dues to be apart of the society. Societies (in the US) are generally 501(c) non profits. If your society is a sub member of a larger organization, it can help speed the approval times.

• The Subspace group must have at least 20 active members.

  This requirement helps us ensure the society is active and our system is not being gamed to deliver the entitlement for a few individuals. Please note: Astrospheric regularly cleans up its member database to keep it small and efficient. If a member does not use Astrospheric (website or app) for over a year, they may be pruned from the system causing a society to dip below the 20 active member requrements and removing the entitlement from the society. It is up to society admins to ensure member lists are accurate and up to date.

• The Subspace group is visible on Astrospheric's map.

  This ensures the Subspace group is created correctly and dramatically simplifies how member sign up. Members will no longer be required to enter a Subspace "Join Code", but instead will be able to click a single button to request access.

• The society must help introduce Astrospheric to members and the community.

  The following requirements help spread the word about Astrospheric and enforce good practices when checking the weather.

  • The Astrospheric embed control must be displayed on your public facing society website in a prominent position and wherever weather is shown. Learn how to set it up.

  • Astrospheric must be the only RDPS forecast on your society/club's website.

    There are three primary reasons for this requirement.

    1. When multiple weather forecasts are shown together it's natural for a person to compare the data against one another. However, it is illogical to compare the same model against itself from another weather service.
    2. Astrospheric is the only service which:
       • Updates the RDPS astronomy variables four times a day directly from binary data produced by the CMC's supercomputers.
       • Allows a person to get an RDPS astronomy forecast at the exact latitude/longitude requested
       • Has worked with Allan Rahill and members at NOAA to improve its astronomy data. (For example, Astrospheric's Transparency forecast takes into account atmospheric aerosols like forest fire smoke.)
       • Produces a custom tailored Cloud Ensemble to take the guess work out of comparing models
       Astrospheric holds itself to a high bar and expects others serving the astronomical community to do the same. At this time we feel putting Astrospheric next to another RDPS astronomy service dilutes the value and can lead to more confusion.
    3. It's part of the deal. Astrospheric devotes both time and money to supporting the astronomical community, including clubs, societies, and universities, by providing features such as Subspace and free access to state-of-the-art data. By supporting Astrospheric, the community can help ensure the continued operation of this special edition.