Terms of Use

1. The service

"AstroEquip", "we", "our" and "us" refer to Alve Landgren, operating AstroEquip as a sole trader in Sweden. "Service" means the Gear Finder wizard, the Telescope Simulator, and any related editorial content, APIs or pages published at astroequip.store, astroequip.eu, astroequip.se, and the API host astro-matcher.vercel.app.

"You" means the natural person using the Service, whether signed in to a Shopify customer account or visiting anonymously.

2. Free use; voluntary support

The Service is provided free of charge. We do not sell physical products, do not process payments through the Service itself, and do not display third-party advertising.

Visitors may make a voluntary donation via Ko-fi to support continued development. Donations are entirely optional, are processed on Ko-fi's own platform (not by us), and confer no special status, rights, or product favoritism in return. See the Editorial independence section below.

3. Editorial independence and affiliate disclosure

We are committed to keeping the matching engine vendor-neutral. To make that explicit:

• The matching engine's scoring logic is never influenced by commercial relationships, donations, sponsorships, or any other economic gain. Scores are derived from the optical and mechanical compatibility of the gear you describe with the product, plus your stated imaging goals, sky conditions, and budget.
• We may, in the future, add affiliate links to manufacturer or retailer product pages so that clicking through a recommendation can earn us a small referral fee. If and when we do this, every affiliate link will carry a visible (affiliate) tag on the storefront and a fuller disclosure will be added to this page. The presence or absence of an affiliate relationship will not change a product's rank.
• The scoring rules and product catalogue are reviewable in the public How the engine matches guide.
• We do not accept payments from manufacturers in exchange for inclusion, ranking, or favourable copy. Editorial content is written independently.

If you believe a recommendation has been influenced by anything other than the stated scoring logic, please write to us, we will investigate and either fix the issue or explain the reasoning publicly.

4. Eligibility

You must be at least 16 years old to use the Service. By using the Service you confirm you are at least 16 (or the digital-consent age in your country, if that is different) and that you can enter into legally binding agreements where you live.

5. Accounts

You do not need an account to use the Gear Finder or the Telescope Simulator anonymously. If you choose to sign in, the account is the Shopify customer account on the storefront you visited and is governed by Shopify's own terms in addition to these terms. We do not issue or hold passwords ourselves.

6. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Scrape, crawl, mirror or otherwise extract data from the Service in bulk through automated means, except via published APIs and within reasonable rate limits.
• Bypass, attempt to bypass, or probe authentication, rate-limiting, HMAC signature checks, replay-protection windows, or any other security control.
• Submit requests designed to overload, degrade, or interrupt the Service (denial-of-service attempts of any form).
• Inject content that contains malware, executable code, or links intended to phish or otherwise harm other users.
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Service to build a commercially competing product, except where this is expressly permitted by applicable law (such as for the limited interoperability rights in Sweden's upphovsrättslagen).
• Use the Service to mislead, harass, or defame any third party, including the brands whose gear is referenced in the catalogue.
• Misrepresent yourself as another user, customer, brand, or AstroEquip itself.
• Use the Service in violation of any applicable law, export-control regulation, or sanctions regime.

We may suspend or terminate access to the Service for any user who breaches these rules. Where a breach has caused damage we may also seek remedies available under applicable law.

7. Intellectual property

Our content. The Service's source code, design, copy, illustrations, articles, scoring rules and original databases are © 2026 Alve Landgren / AstroEquip and are protected by Swedish and EU copyright law. You may view the Service in a browser, share links to its public pages, and quote short excerpts for reviews, commentary, or non-commercial editorial use with attribution. Any other reproduction, distribution, public performance, or derivative work requires our prior written permission.

Brand names and product data. The product catalogue references gear made by independent manufacturers (e.g. Sky-Watcher, Celestron, ZWO, William Optics, iOptron, Vixen, Takahashi, etc.). All such names, logos, and product designations are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners and are used here for the purpose of identification only. AstroEquip is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any of these manufacturers. Product specifications shown are derived from manufacturers' own publicly available product pages; if you spot an inaccuracy, please report it.

Your content. The setups, custom gear entries and preferences you enter into the Gear Finder remain yours. By using the Service you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to host, store, and process that data only to the extent necessary to provide the Service to you, as described in our privacy policy. We do not claim ownership of your data and you can request its deletion at any time.

Astronomical data. The Telescope Simulator queries the Aladin Lite and Simbad services operated by the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS). Sky-survey imagery and catalogue data shown in the simulator are subject to CDS's terms and are credited per the citation in the How the engine matches guide.

8. Recommendations are advisory only; third-party purchases

The Gear Finder produces ranked suggestions based on the compatibility of telescopes, cameras, mounts, filters and accessories with the goals and gear you describe. These suggestions are informational. They are not investment advice, professional consulting, or any kind of guarantee that a particular item will perform a particular way under your specific conditions.

Astrophotography is a craft with many moving parts (literally). You remain solely responsible for the gear you buy and the conditions under which you use it. Always cross-check critical purchase decisions with the manufacturer's documentation and, where useful, with other knowledgeable members of the astronomy community.

AstroEquip does not sell products, does not process payments, and does not ship goods. The Gear Finder may include links to manufacturer websites, retailer storefronts, or other third-party pages where the recommended gear can be purchased. Those websites are operated by independent third parties. We have no control over their content, pricing, stock, shipping, returns, warranties, refund policies, or data-handling practices, and we make no representations about any of those things on their behalf.

Any purchase or transaction you make on a third-party website is solely between you and that third party. We accept no responsibility or liability for any third-party transaction, including (without limitation) order failures, payment disputes, defective goods, delivery problems, customs and import issues, misrepresentation of products, or any consequential losses. Always evaluate the third-party seller's reputation, terms, and refund policies before committing to a purchase.

9. Simulator disclaimer

The Telescope Simulator is a planning and educational tool. It models field of view, sampling, sky background, light-budget estimates and similar properties using simplified physical models. It is not intended for safety-critical use cases (e.g. solar observation, navigation, or any application where an incorrect calculation could lead to physical harm). Never observe the Sun without proper solar filters regardless of what any software tool suggests.

10. Availability; no warranty

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, statutory or otherwise, including, to the maximum extent permitted by law, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and uninterrupted operation.

We do not guarantee that the Service will be available at all times, that errors or bugs will be corrected, or that the results obtained from the Service will be accurate or reliable. Catalogue data is best-effort and may lag behind manufacturers' current line-up.

Nothing in this section limits or excludes any consumer rights you have under mandatory law that cannot be excluded by agreement, including under the Swedish Consumer Sales Act (konsumentköplagen) and applicable EU consumer protection law.

11. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, our total aggregate liability to you arising out of or in connection with the Service, however arising, shall not exceed the greater of:

• the total amount you paid us in the twelve months preceding the event giving rise to liability (which, given the Service is free, will normally be zero); or
• the minimum non-excludable amount required by applicable mandatory law.

We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, lost profits, lost revenues, loss of goodwill, lost data, or business interruption, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability for: (a) death or personal injury caused by negligence, (b) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or (c) any other liability that cannot be excluded under applicable mandatory law.

12. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any third-party claim, demand, loss or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your breach of these terms, your misuse of the Service, or your violation of any law or the rights of any third party. We will give you prompt notice of any such claim and reasonable cooperation in its defence at your expense.

13. Third-party services

The Service relies on third-party platforms, including Shopify (storefront and customer accounts), Vercel (API hosting), Neon (database), Resend (email), Upstash (rate limiting), Ko-fi (optional donations) and the CDS Strasbourg astronomical archives. Their terms govern their own services and are not modified by these terms. If a third-party platform restricts, suspends or changes the way it works in a way that affects the Service, we may have to adjust the Service accordingly without prior notice.

14. Changes to the Service

We may add, change, suspend, or remove features of the Service at any time and without notice. Where a change materially reduces the usefulness of the Service to existing users, we will use reasonable efforts to announce it on the storefronts beforehand.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. Updates take effect on the date listed at the top of this page. Substantive changes will be announced on the storefronts at least 14 days before taking effect; continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

16. Termination

You may stop using the Service at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access (and, for signed-in customers, delete the saved-setup record on request) for any breach of these terms. The sections of these terms that by their nature should survive termination, including IP, disclaimers, liability, indemnity and governing-law, will survive.

17. Geographic scope and governing law

The Service is operated from Sweden and intended primarily for users in the European Union, the European Economic Area, and the United Kingdom. We do not actively market the Service in other jurisdictions. Users accessing the Service from outside the EU/EEA/UK do so at their own discretion and remain responsible for compliance with applicable local law (including consumer protection, data protection, export control, and tax rules in their country of residence).

These terms and any dispute arising out of or in connection with them are governed by the laws of Sweden, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles.

For consumers resident in the EU, mandatory consumer-protection rules of your country of residence still apply. The European Commission also provides an Online Dispute Resolution platform that may be used for out-of-court resolution.

Subject to mandatory consumer law, the courts of Sweden have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute that cannot be resolved informally.

18. Severability and entire agreement

If any provision of these terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force. These terms, together with our privacy policy and any notices we publish on the storefronts, constitute the entire agreement between you and us with respect to the Service.

19. Contact

Questions, takedown requests, accessibility issues, or anything else: email alvesastrofotografi@gmail.com.