Category Archives: Earth Science

The most beautiful planet of all

Posted on by September 29, 2026

There is so much exploring to do in the solar system. When I saw Saturn through my new telescope I could not believe my eyes. Then came Jupiter with its Galilean Moons and after joining Slooh I was able to set up missions to the fainter planets as well, always looking out for interesting surface details, doing animations of the Jupiter’s Great Red Spot or watching the changes in the tilt of Saturn’s rings.
Up until Slooh introduced Earth Science, I never thought of using satellite data to observe the most important planet in our solar system.
I’ve been on a virtual fly-by of Jupiter’s moon, Io. The LUNAR course has definitely increased my connectedness with the universe emotionally, especially with the solar system.
While I wait to continue my journey to more moons of the Moon Symphony, my virtual spaceship is heading back home and as I observe Earth from space, I realise how incredibly fortunate we are to be living on the most beautiful planet of all.

Image: The Great Prismatic Spring

Moons Symphony website: https://www.moons-symphony.com/

Crater Collection

Posted on by May 31, 2025

This was a most rewarding Quest but also many hours spent on setting up Slooh Sentinel 2 missions, processing and fitting all my images onto the template.

Since Slooh introduced Earth Sciences, I have been able to get amazing satellite views of our planet. The more I explore, the more I realise that we do have a wonderful world.
The best part will be learning more about each of these craters.

Congratulations Slooh! This one was quite an adventure.

Satellite Explorer Quest

Posted on by March 30, 2025
Satellite Explorer Quest
My first Earth Science using Sentenel-2.
My first port of call was home base. Obvious were urban features , mountains, areas with vegetation and the large body of water, which is called False Bay.
Next in line I visited the Kogel Bay Nature Reserve which is part of the Cape Floral Kingdom. Satellites are used to monitor the invasion of alien vegetation.
I meandered up the west coast of Africa to Walvis Bay (Namibia) where ocean meets the Namib desert. Typical of this region is the fog and low clouds that roll in due to the cold Benguela current and s/westerly winds. The tiny square patches in my image looked a bit large for normal urban buildings. I established that these were Saltworks. The ponds are artificially flooded and being rich in nutrients attract wetland birds such as flamingos.

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