The Elephant Observatory
The Library is always open. The Observatory has hours.
Every weekend, the guided tools awaken — Friday at dawn through Sunday at midnight.
Every new account receives 3 Oracle queries and 2 Sentinel attempts — free, during Observatory Hours. A taste of what the guided tools offer.
The Elephant Observatory is in early development. Core features are functional, but you may encounter rough edges as we continue to refine the experience. Your support funds active development — and your feedback shapes what TEO becomes.
Light Sources
One-time purchases. No subscriptions. No auto-renewal. Buy anytime — your light waits for Observatory Hours.
The Candle
1 Observatory day
A candle burns for a day — not 24 hours. Light it Friday morning, it goes out at midnight. Buy one, buy several, give them away.
Your candle waits unlit until the next Observatory day.
The Lantern
1 weekend (Fri · Sat · Sun)
Steadier than a candle. It carries you from Friday dawn through Sunday midnight — three full days without thinking about it.
The Expedition
1 weekend · 3 explorers
Three lanterns, three explorers. Each walks the halls alone — but something about knowing someone else is in the building changes how the ideas land.
Patronage
For those who stopped visiting and started staying.
The Resident
$15/month
Covers the baseline: Oracle compute, database hosting, and keeping the Observatory running.
The Patron
$30/month
This tier provides zero extra features. The additional $15 subsidizes candles for students and funds the Architect's deep-research hours.
A Gift to the Observatory
Some readers don't want a candle. They just want the Observatory to keep its lamps lit. No access tier, no account required — a direct gift to the Architect.
via Wise · any amount · no account needed
Observatory Hours
Why the guided tools rest during the week.
The Observatory's AI-guided tools — the Oracle, the Sentinel, quests, games, and Passages — are available Friday through Sunday. During the week, the full Library of content stays open: nodes, the knowledge graph, the archive, your Grimoire notes. Read, reflect, go to the source material.
This isn't a server constraint. It's a design choice. The most important part of learning doesn't happen inside the tool — it happens on the walk home, in the conversation over dinner, in the moment three days later when a concept suddenly explains something you weren't even thinking about.
The weekend is the encounter. The week is the integration.
The Transparent Receipt
Where your money actually goes.
These figures reflect actual platform costs, updated periodically.
Epistemic Hibernation
When your candle burns out or your residency lapses, nothing is lost. Your progress, your Grimoire, your mastered nodes — all permanently saved. The Observatory simply waits for you to return.
We hibernate. We never delete.