On Monday, April 17th, Slooh, the only company to bring live celestial viewings to anybody with an internet connection, launched a new version of its innovative technology. Slooh provides social viewing and control of robotic telescopes situated at world class observatory sites, including seven telescopes situated at its flagship observatory, at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands, one of the world’s top observatory sites, and three telescopes based in Santiago, Chile, situated at the Catholic University and offering complementary views of the southern skies.

“The Slooh community is founded upon the principle that telescopes are more interesting and affordable as a shared, social experience with other people,” said Michael Paolucci, Founder and CEO of Slooh. When a member is in control of a Slooh telescope, all of the other members are able to watch, learn and capture images. The new version of Slooh.com builds on this by letting members of the community make posts in ‘Community Perspectives’ about celestial objects that appear for all the other members to see whenever any of the telescopes are looking at that object. Slooh curates these posts, and true to its mission, welcomes diverse perspectives about what is ‘out there’, knowing that no one interpretation can ever be definitive. Slooh is open to the spiritual, the artistic, the imaginative, along with the scientific. All posts are freely available to the public, who are invited to participate in the community as well.

Anyone can try Slooh.com for free for 30 days. Membership levels include:

  • Slooh Apprentice – entry level product designed for beginners and students, costs $4.95 per month, providing a curated experience to point the telescopes at any of the 500 most popular objects in the night sky.
  • Slooh Astronomer – appropriate for more advanced amateur astronomers, costs $24.95 per month and features the ability to point any of Slooh’s telescopes on an unlimited basis at any object in the sky, either by choosing from existing astronomical catalogs or by entering coordinates.

“When you look through a Slooh telescope, you are doing it in unison with a global community looking up in wonder together. Therefore, we designed elements of this new experience to bring about an exchange of ideas, as we seek to curate our collective human response to space across every style of thought and expression”, said Slooh Astronomer Paul Cox.

Since its inception on December 25th, 2003, Slooh’s membership community have operated its robotic telescopes continuously for 4,800 nights, weather permitting. During that time, members have pointed the telescopes over one million times and taken over five million images of 50,000+ unique objects in the sky. Members have made over 6,000 submissions to the Minor Planet Center, tracked comets for JPL, been published in research with the Max Planck Institute, discovered and confirmed numerous supernova, nova, etc.

Building on the success of its live video programming of eclipses, transits, full moons, asteroids, comets and other celestial phenomena, with an estimated reach of 50 million viewers since its inception in 2009, the launch of the new website also includes the Space Situation Room, where Slooh will monitor and livestream all the happenings in space across a global network of telescopes, featuring more than 25 partner observatories around the world. The Space Situation Room will be anchored by new host Gerard Monteux, also known as Bill Patrick, a longtime host of NBC Sports, and Slooh Astronomers Paul Cox, Bob Berman and Eric Edelman and their guests.

About Slooh

Slooh connects humanity through communal exploration of the universe. Slooh’s automated observatories develop celestial image streams in real-time for broadcast to the Internet, and Slooh’s technology is protected by Patent No.: US 7,194,146 B2 which was awarded in 2006.  Slooh’s flagship observatory is situated at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC), one of the finest observatory sites in the world and home to the largest telescope in the world. Slooh has traveled with a mobile observatory to Kenya, the Faroe Islands, Indonesia, Iceland, Australia, and Alaska, and partnered with observatories in Arizona, Japan, Hawaii, Cypress, Dubai, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Norway and many more to broadcast live celestial events of potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs), comets, transits, eclipses, solar activity, etc., which are syndicated to media outlets worldwide, including TIME, National Geographic, Wired, ABC News, CNN and many more. Celebrate the Transcontinental Eclipse, a Total Solar Eclipse, August 21st, 2017 in Stanley, Idaho, with Slooh as it hosts a three-day cultural festival for community members. Slooh recently published a book, The Saturn Above It, An Anthology of Short Fiction About Space, edited by Karen Stevens. Slooh is supported by investment from Connecticut Innovations, the State’s venture capital investment fund. Slooh is based in Washington Depot, CT and is hiring for positions in engineering and content development.

Contact:

Tricia Ennis
EM:  tricia@slooh.com
PH: 877-427-5664, ext. 3
176 West Morris Road
Washington Depot CT 06794