Slooh, a service that offers unfettered access to two huge earth-based telescopes, is inviting folks to watch the LCROSS impact on Friday at 4:30am PDT or 7:30am EDT. The feed begins at 3:30am PDT.
The Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite will hit the moon to created a crater 14 meters in diameter and 2 meters deep. The resulting analysis will help assess how large bodies will damage planets along with an assessment of current water levels in the moon. Plus it involves blowing holes in the moon.
The feeds are available here and they will be transmitting from New Hampshire and Arizona simultaneously. NASA is also transmitting the impact live.
Slooh is a cool web-based service that lets “borrow” time on high powered telescopes. I’ve had bad luck with it – I’ve never been able to see much because of cloud cover – but if the weather is right and you’re fascinated by astronomy it’s a fun service.
The service costs $5.95 a month (the LCROSS impact is free) or $49.95 a year. It includes live picture-taking and group missions led by a professional astronomer. You can also share your pictures at MySlooh. There is also a kids’ version including tours of the moon, the universe, and the outer stars.