If you enjoy watching nature livestreams (and let’s face it, who hasn’t put on a panda cam at least one or twice while toiling away), then you may love today’s announcement. Slooh , an online astronomy community that has a network of telescopes, is now making virtual viewing free. Slooh’s aim is to bring outer space to your fingertips ; it owns two telescopes in Chile and seven in the Canary Islands. It allows its paid members to book time to control these telescopes. You can secure 5 reservations per month (5–10 minutes in length) for $5 per month or an unlimited number of reservations for $25 per month. Other Slooh members can sit back and watch online, but until today, they were required to pay for the privilege. Now the organization has opened up viewing for free; all you have to do is register to view live streams of outer space. Right now, some of Slooh’s telescopes are offline due to dust in the air, and obviously when it’s daylight at a telescope’s location, it will be dormant. To join Slooh’s community, you can register on their website. You’ll be taken to a payment page, which offers a 30-day trial of the $5/month tier, but you can move ahead with a free account by clicking the “Continue Exploring the Community” option. You can’t control the telescopes, and the number of photos you’ll be able to take is limited, but hey, it’s hard to complain about a free account. Via: The Verge

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Slooh’s stargazing telescope livestreams now free to view