Control high powered telescopes from your own computer

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By Phillip Torrone
Posted 2008/02/20 @ 1:30 pm
Category Fun & Games, Science

@The NYC Toy fair 2008 one of my favorite companies was attending, Blue Storm productions – makers of “Slooh” – it’s not a product exactly, it’s time you can rent on high powered telescopes. You buy a card with a number of minutes, use your computer and remotely control observatory sites in Europe, South America (and soon Australia).

More:

Slooh – Link.
MySlooh (photos) – Link.
More photos of Slooh @ Flickr – Link.
Giant set of NYC Toy fair 2008 photos @ Flickr – Link.
MAKE’s coverage of the NYC Toy Faire 2008 in one place! – Link.

In the Maker Shed

Cube 3D Printer

BeagleBoard BeagleBone Black

Tux Case for Raspberry Pi

BrushBots

6 Responses to Control high powered telescopes from your own computer

theaty on February 20th, 2008 at 2:07 pm said:

This has actually been out for quite some time and available at any Ritz Camera/Ritz Family store. I picked one up for my cousin over Christmas and he loved it. So did his dad.

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Logo on February 20th, 2008 at 2:23 pm said:

After viewing their tutorial video, it seems that you don’t control the telescope… it is on preset “missions”, half of which are decided by the editors and half by members. You can change which zoom level you want to view the image at, but not skyscan or anything of that nature… a bit disappointing, seems more like a tour (albeit a cool one).

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athousandleaves on February 20th, 2008 at 2:25 pm said:

almost sounds like you’re paying to look at their pre-captured maps of the skies?

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rocketguy on February 21st, 2008 at 6:28 am said:

There are tours, yes, but you can also buy time for your own missions and have them worked into the schedule. At least that was the case last I looked.

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the interwebs on February 21st, 2008 at 8:31 am said:

Hi – I’m a member. One of the domes (soon more) is completely under our control. There’s a reservation system and you tell the scope where to point. Then you can take your own pictures while the telescope is pointing to your object in real time. Everything through the “mission interface” is live, no canned images. Check out http://www.myslooh.com – that’s the member gallery – the only place where the images AREN’T live, but you can see what we do:)

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grolslom on March 16th, 2008 at 12:53 am said:

i tought this is online but its not online shi*t

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