Bringing Live Astronomy into the Classroom and to the General Public

Abstract:

Slooh makes astronomy incredibly easy, engaging and affordable for anyone with a desire to see outer space for themselves. Since 2003 Slooh has connected telescopes to the Internet for access by the broader public, schools and colleges. Slooh’s automated observatories develop celestial images in real-time for broadcast to the Internet. Slooh’s technology is protected by Patent No.: US 7,194,146 B2 which was awarded in 2006.

Slooh members have taken over 3.5m images of over 40,000 celestial objects, participated in numerous discoveries with leading astronomical institutions and made over 2,000 Near-Earth Asteroid submissions to the Minor Planet Center. Slooh’s flagship observatories are situated on Mt. Teide, in partnership with the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC), and in Chile, in partnership with the Catholic University.

Slooh’s free live broadcasts of potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs), comets, transits, eclipses, solar activity etc. feature narration by astronomy experts Bob Berman and Paul Cox and are syndicated to media outlets worldwide. Slooh signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA in March 2014 to "Bring the Universe to Everyone and Help Protect Earth, Too."

Slooh new schools program "Slooh Classroom" was launched in September, an initiative bringing live astronomy into classrooms.