Slooh.com is a remote telescope service where users can do remote astrophotography using a number of telescopes located in two hemispheres.

This article reviews the memberships Slooh offers. I discuss an overall review of how Slooh works in this article.

Types of Slooh Memberships

There are currently several types of memberships available at Slooh.

The Family membership includes one main account and four sub-accounts. The main account is equivalent to an Individual Apprentice membership and the sub-accounts are equivalent to a Student membership, both of which I discuss below.

The Teacher and Student membership levels are similar to the Family membership, except that the Teacher account has access to certain Student membership functionality that makes it easier to administer a curriculum.

You can get access to the individual membership levels by emailing support@slooh.com.

There are three individual Slooh memberships are as follows:

  • Student
  • Apprentice
  • Astronomer

I discuss each of the three memberships below.

Slooh Student Membership

This membership is designed for students at any level, be it grade school, high school, or any post-secondary institution.

Student members can control the telescopes to point at any target in the Slooh 1000 list. The Slooh 1000 list is a listing of 1000 interesting targets, as curated by Slooh. The listing includes targets from various catalogs including NGC, IC, LDN and others. The Slooh 1000 also includes planets and minor planets.

Student members can have up to five reservations at any time. Students can also Join missions, up to a total of five reserved and joined missions, combined. In addition, Students can participate in discussions in the Clubs area and they have their own private Club which is limited to Students only.

Student members can complete Slooh Quests and they can compete for Gravity Points with a leaderboard for only for Student members.

When a Student member’s missions are complete, they’ll receive PNG images as processed by Slooh and Students can download and share these images.

Currently, the Slooh Student membership costs $50/year.

Slooh Individual Apprentice Membership or Main Family Account or Teacher Account

This membership is an entry-level membership for people that might be new to astronomy or perhaps new to astrophotography using remote telescopes.

Apprentice members can control the telescopes and can point at any target on the Slooh 1000 list, any target in four additional catalogs that include the NGC, Bennett, Caldwell, and Messier catalogs, and can point the telescope at any coordinates when the target is within the limits of the telescopes (30 degrees above the horizon and not within 30 minutes of transit and not close to the moon when it is up).

Apprentice members can have one advanced reservation at any time.

In addition, Apprentice members can either Join up to five missions or have up to five Basic reservations at a time, or a combination of both (up to a total of five).

When a member Joins a mission the joining member gets access to the images from the mission even though it was scheduled by another member. Members can Join any other members’ missions (up to a limit of five Joined missions).

A Basic reservation is a mission scheduled through the Slooh 1000 and Slooh selects the best time and telescope for you.

Apprentice members can complete any Slooh Quest and can compete for Gravity Points with a leaderboard for all members available on the Dashboard.

Apprentice members can participate in discussions in the Clubs area, except for Clubs for Students.

When an Apprentice member’s mission completes, they get access to the PNG images as processed by Slooh and they also get access to the FITS files for the mission. FITS files are the raw data from the telescope and are often used for scientific purposes or for performing advanced processing of images.

Currently, the Slooh Apprentice membership costs $100/year.

Slooh Individual Astronomer Membership

This membership is for those that feel an Apprentice membership is too limited for their observing goals.

Individual Astronomer members can control the telescopes and can point at any target on the Slooh 1000 list, any target in 14 catalogs including the NGC, IC, ARP, Bennett, Caldwell, Tycho-2, Sharpless, and many others. Astronomer members can also point the telescope at any coordinates when the target is within the limits of the telescopes (Not within 30 minutes of transit and not close to the moon when it is up). Astronomer members are also allowed to point the telescope at targets that are below 30 degrees above the horizon and have access to special processing presets that allow them to take Luminance only filtered images which is useful for very faint targets or for scientific purposes.

Individual Astronomer members can have up to five advanced reservations at any time. In addition, Astronomer members can Join up to five missions or have up to five basic reservations at a time (or a combination of both, for a total of five missions [Joined or Basic reservation]).

When a member Joins a mission the joining member gets access to the images from the mission even though it was scheduled by another member. Members can Join any other members’ missions (up to a limit of five Joined missions).

A Basic reservation is a mission scheduled through the Slooh 1000 and Slooh selects the best time and telescope for you.

In addition, Individual Astronomer members have access to special processing presets that are useful for scientific or astrophotography applications. Astronomer members can also schedule missions that are below the 30 degree limit of the telescopes (below the soft horizon limit, down to about 20 degrees).

Astronomer members can complete any Slooh Quest and can compete for Gravity Points with a leaderboard for all members available on the Dashboard.

Astronomer members can participate in discussions in the Clubs area, except for Clubs for Students.

When an Astronomer member’s mission completes, they get access to the PNG images as processed by Slooh and they also get access to the FITS files for the mission. FITS files are the raw data from the telescope and are often used for scientific purposes or for performing advanced processing of images.

Currently, the Slooh Astronomer membership costs $300/year.

Which Membership to Choose?

If you’re a student of any type and want to connect with other students, the Student membership level is recommended.

If you’re relatively new to astronomy or new to remote imaging using remote telescopes, the Apprentice membership is a good way to get started and many members stay with this membership level.

If you want more control over the telescopes and want more reservations, the Astronomer membership is recommended.

Conclusion

This article reviewed Slooh membership levels.