Author Archives: Carol

Composite of the Eta Carina Nebula

Posted on by March 30, 2025
This is a composite image of the Eta Carina NebulaThis will be an ongoing project.
The Eta Carina Nebula is such a vast region.  Thus far I have set up 35 missions using Slooh’s Chile Two Telescope.
Eventually I’ll add more missions to complete a full frame image.
I have included the Gabriela Mistral Nebula and Gem Cluster (top right)
Now I have a better understanding of the extent of the nebula and its location. Even though I cannot see this with the naked eye, I will know its there when I’m outside under a starry southern hemisphere sky

The Okavango Delta. Botswana. Africa

Posted on by March 24, 2025

Inspired by Slooh‘s Parts of a River Quest, I became curious about inland deltas. I set up several satellite missions to get images of the great expanse of the Okavango Delta.

The Okavango River does not flow into the sea but spreads fanlike into the Kalahari Basin which is a very large lowland area (endorheic basin) These are called closed basins as they collect water but have no water flowing away from them.

This Delta is formed by seasonal flooding from March to June.

I have also learned that the Okavango Delta has important carbon sinks (pools) which take up more carbon from the atmosphere than is released.

Climate change is having a detrimental effect on the delta.

Slooh’s space exploration and Earth Sciences platform features an interface to satellites and online telescopes

My quest to understand our Planet

Posted on by March 19, 2025

It’s so hard to describe the feeling when you see objects in the night sky. Wow! is one of the most used of exclamations. Sometimes I get so excited that I almost can’t contain myself but I have always known it’s much more than just ‘wow’

Since Slooh launched Earth Sciences, I’ve had to search for a new exclamation.

All this while, I have been studying night sky objects, yet never thought that one day I would be studying satellite images of Earth. How could I understand the universe before understanding my own planet?

Slooh has come to the rescue! Earth Science quests leave me feeling humbled. I approach them as if I’m about to touch on something fragile. I don’t go ‘wow’ or jump up and down when I see my Terra images. Earth is serious stuff. Instead, a kind of quiet peace comes over me. If everyone could look at our planet in this different way, we might realise how much it needs our protection.

Thanks Slooh for this incredible opportunity.

Slooh is a robotic telescope and earth satellite service that can be viewed live through a web browser

NGC 1981 – The Secret Harem Revealed

Posted on by May 17, 2025

Due its proximity to very impressive neighbors, the open cluster ngc 1981 in Orion has never attracted my attention. The cluster has only 10 or so, sparsely distributed, young bright stars.

The multiple star system, Struve 750, is the northernmost star of the string of three stars, right above the Running Man.

The story goes that Aldebaran, failing to shoot one of the three zebras, was given the boot by the seven sisters. They weren’t impressed that he could not retrieve his arrow in fear of Betelgeuse who was as strong as a lion. So the arrow (which we know as Orion’s sword) is still lying there. Now I know why Betelgeuse would not allow Aldebaran to approach. He was actually guarding his own harem!