For much of their existence, camping tents have been opaque. That began to change in the 1980s, as manufacturers started adding small mesh windows. By the 2010s, stargazing tents made primarily of transparent mesh hit the market, allowing campers to sleep under the stars.

To keep out the rain, these stargazing tents featured external rainflies. But being awakened by unexpected rain and needing to head outside the tent to set up the rainfly isn't a great experience. Thus Colorado-based Joe Bissonnette, a mechanical engineer and stargazing enthusiast, developed his Sky View tent design.

Working with a local sewing and prototyping business, Bissonnette selected a material ((Phifer UltraVue® 2 polyester mesh) specifically engineered for crystal-clear visibility. But the real innovation is his design for a fast-deploying internal rainfly. Should you be awakened in the middle of the night by raindrops, getting the rainfly in place is as fast as pulling a curtain shut:

Because the mesh is overlaid with the tent's base material, water still sheds to the outside.

The view from inside the tents is, well, stellar:

Sky View Tents, which launched last year, currently offers two models: A $350 two-person Backpacker model, and a larger $400 XL that can sleep three. Both are made at Sky View's production facility in Colorado.