Did you know you can buy Telescope time online?

There are a couple of packages you can buy at the site in question. Here’s what I gleaned from their FAQ (with allowance for some minor errors):

They offer telescope time in two flavors: Missions and Solo Watching.

A Mission entails group viewing of whatever they have the telescope focussed on at that particular moment — the Moon, a planet, a star, a Galaxy, etc. When you join a Mission, you watch with everyone else who has tuned in. They say they run 20 Missions per night from 2pm to 2am EST

Solo viewing is just you and the scope. Each Mission lasts for 5 to 15 minutes or so, and there is radio commentary to accompany it. As you can imagine, you must reserveall solo viewing time in advance.

For $50 and you can join unlimited Missions throughout the year during which time, you’ll also get 15 minutes of solo telescope time of your own.

For $100, you get all of the above, plus an hour (I think) of telescope time.

The telescopes are in the Canary islands, 5 hours ahead of East Coast time so for us in the US, it gets late early here.

I just signed up for 7-Day Free trial of the basic package which for me, offers just the right balance — Missions and solo watching. Beats the hell out of buying a $3K scope—for me, anyway.

When I signed up for the 7-day trial, it felt like I’d been suckered into buying a package outright. I went through with it anyway, and when I came out at the other end, I found I had indeed signed up for the free trial and only semi- committed to the $50 package. I’e., they won’t charge my card until the 7 days are up, so I guess I can cancel if things don’t measure up.

Is there any other online Telescope time-buying program like this? I really would like to hear from you about this.

Wouldn’t you kill if Keck offered it!! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

Oh. I almost forgot! if any of this interests you, go to…

http://www.slooh.com/

…to read their FAQ, etc.

AND NO NO NO. I AM NOT PIMPING FOR THIS SITE. I HAVE NO ULTERIOR MOTIVES EXCEPT TO SPREAD THE WORD TO WHOMEVER MIGHT BE INTERESTED.

I know there is a question at the end of your OP, but wouldn’t this be better in MPMSIMS? You’re more likely to run into people who might be interested there, I would think.

There was a question at the top as well. Furthermore, GQ seems to be where the scientific types hang out."

But thank you, Tenar, for commenting.

Two BAUT threads that may help:

Something borrowed

Something blue

There is no General Question here. Moved to MPSIMS.

-xash
General Questions Moderator