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9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 Manage your expectations Jan 18, 2011
By Personne
The idea of Slooh is an appealing one. Set up a fleet of robotic telescopes and make them available by subscription. Users can schedule imaging sessions, collect the results, and make their own images of solar system or deep sky objects. That's just what Slooh does. It's a relative bargain, but imposes some serious limitations that the subscriber must be aware of.
First of all, this is not for the beginner, and it's not actually a very good way to learn about the sky. Some knowledge about where things are found and when they are visible is required to get the most out of Slooh. For the beginner, there are many planetarium programs that provide better views and a much better overall context. Some programs, like Stellarium, are free. Others, like Starry Night Pro can set you back a few dollars. There are also great beginner books, like NightWatch.
This package finds its best match with astronomers who want to dabble in imaging without spending $10,000 to get in the door. It's also good for people who enjoy the challenge of processing images. The website (there's no software--just a website) provides a list of the objects to be imaged. The user can also book 7 shots per week (I guess that's what 'unlimited' means). The exposures are relatively short--five to ten minutes--and are shot in a generic fashion using red, green, and blue filters, along with a monochrome luminance exposure. They are stored online, but are easily downloaded as PNG files. There appear to be no other filters for more elusive objects which may do best with H-Beta or OIII filters. Astronomers will note that the FITS format does not appear to be supported. An email to tech support has confirmed this.
The images are less than impressive on first blush. They are naturally subject to weather conditions and the presence of the moon. There are equipment glitches from time to time, and the occasional airplane or satellite streaks the image. The colors of deep sky objects are forced and unconvincing. But this is where a little cleverness comes in. You can of course snag as many exposures of an object as you like, combining the images by stacking. Tiny amounts of light can be multiplied by this technique, and noise can be suppressed. You can improve images considerably, although I doubt you'll ever match the best results of a serious astro-imager. I've attached a few images to demonstrate what can be done. You can find a 'before' image of the Rosette Nebula. This is a single exposure, just as it comes from Slooh. The after image is made from a stack of five images, with some serious Photoshop work. I haven't added anything to the image: I've simply made the most of data that are there. You'll find similar before and after images of Omega Centauri.
There are certainly many things to quibble with. You cannot look at the upcoming schedule and select images you'd like. You must sit there at your browser and physically push the button to grab an image. You only have a few seconds to do this, then the image is gone. This is by far my biggest complaint. But overall, Slooh is a fairly-priced and may open the door to an engaging occupation.
14 of 17 found the following review helpful:
 Be Afraid, Be VERY Afraid!! Jun 14, 2009
By david donnell
Be VERY careful about giving your money to this company. They make LOTS of promises....but deliver on few. Only ONE scope out of the EIGHT that they advertise is working anywhere near acceptable. 3 of them are off more than they are on. And the remaining 4 haven't produced a usable image YET!! And they've been promising these scopes to members for many months. Slooh is cheaper than other remote scope facilities....and in this case, you get EXACTLY what you pay for....$50 of use a year, or less.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Slooh is kind of a scam, check out my review Sep 25, 2011
By TheMTB
"Now accepting applications for minions."
I bought a Slooh card for 9yo son. He was VERY excited about getting to use it. Unfortunately all the "mission launches" are very late at night or early the next morning. Who lets their kids stay up until midnight or 2am to use it?
There were 2 launch codes for before 10pmEST. We waited almost an hour for them to launch. One was "scrubbed" because the observatory was offline. Another 18 minutes waiting for the next and even though I had already clicked the "load" button 18 minutes ago, it waited until the end of the countdown to notify us that we missed the launch because we hadn't disabled our pop up blocker.
We started out with 10 launch codes and it is obvious they have a pattern. It was easy to guess a few more. I also did a search for "free Slooh codes" and found more. Many of the codes give you the same missions as the old codes. They want you to buy multiple packs to get new codes. I think that is a bit a of scam if they are giving you the same old missions. It is a great idea but not the easiest to use especially for younger children.
Since none of the reviews I read online mentioned any of these issues and a few I read were copied word for word from other places, I have to believe the reviews and blogs are faked.
Its fun for a kid but misleading and not very easy to use.
6 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Slooh is a SCAM - do not use! Nov 19, 2011
By David Lee Hudson
"Dave Hudson"
I signed up for Slooh back in June and have yet to be able to do a "mission". I was able to login ONE time and actually see the telescopes functioning. 95% of the time you login to Slooh you will see "Missions Offline" with no reason. A good example is tonight, November 18, 2011. All three Scopes are offline with no explanation. I signed up for a mission and when my time came around it just took my credit and nothing happened and the mission remained offline.
I have tried contacting customer support and gotten no responses. I went to their Facebook group and posted a message and they DELETED it from the wall because I said I was unhappy with my service.
Buyer Beware!!!!!
9 of 12 found the following review helpful:
 Look at the Sky Feb 23, 2009
By Honest Abe
As an amateur astronomer, I give this site top marks. There are two telescope sites working now (Canary Islands and Chili) and a third on the way in Australia. The viewing is live with very interesting object: stars, nebulae, galaxies etc., nice descriptions of what you see and the ability to take three pictures of each object (that run about 5 minutes each) which you can place in your own gallery or make low resolution prints. They also have almost daily podcasts from amateur astronomers, chat rooms, forums and eventually you will have the ability to schedule time for your own missions. They have a 7 day free trial period to see if you like the site; if you do, I advise getting the unlimited card for only $50 since you will use up the time quickly otherwise.
Now for a little bad news (but for me the potential for this activity is so great, I still give it 5 stars). They have been setting up new telescopes, hardware and software so they have had technical problems with down time. Hopefully this will be resolved in the future, but you need to expect some technical diffulties since this site is technology intensive. Also their instructions in using all the options could be better explained up front rather then surfing around in the forums. You might have trouble with microsofts internet explorer (I did); if so you will need to switch to a Firefox browser (easy to do). I am a bit skeptical that children will be that interested (unless they are exceptional), but it is worth a try. It is very educational, a super nice family affair and is inexpensive.
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