Conjunctions, Comic-Con, Camp Cosmos, & Crowning Top Gravity Earners!
- Anna Paolucci
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Summer is in full swing at Slooh! This month we're celebrating the students who made the 2025–26 school year unforgettable during the Gravity Awards Finale Showcase (Watch recording), welcoming Camp Cosmos as an official partner, and sharing how the University of North Texas transformed their introductory astronomy course with AstroVenture and Slooh. We are also very excited to attend the American Association of Physics Teachers Conference as well as Comic-Con in San Diego! Stop by and say hello if you plan to attend either conference.
In the sky, July delivers one of the richest months of the year for planet watchers: Venus blazes in the west each evening, Mars pairs up with Uranus and Aldebaran before dawn, and the Full Buck Moon closes out the month in style. Read on for your July skywatching guide, Quest picks for the summer, and more.
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Gravity Awards Finale Showcase
The Gravity Awards Finale Showcase is a wrap! 🌟 Congratulations Grayson (South Summit Elementary), Beckham (Hidden Hills Elementary School), Venn (Camp Cosmos), Alex (Allen Academy), Jacob (Thomas Jefferson High School), Bohlale-Ba-Morena (Parklands College), Nico (Portland State University), Lars (University of Oldenburg), and Charlotte (University of Oldenburg)! Our top three Gravity Point earners from k-8, high school, and college for the 25-26 school year!
You all truly excelled this year on Slooh — going beyond the classroom, completing quests, capturing images, sharing observations and building a portfolio for yourselves on the platform!
On June 20th, as part of the Summer Solstice Star Party, Slooh's Anna Paolucci co-hosted the Finale Showcase alongside a very special guest: Tini (Lương Long Giang), a 14-year-old student from Vietnam and proud member of Slooh's 2026 Gravity Guild. Tini didn't just co-host — she also designed the Gravity Yearbook and the official Gravity Awards certificates. We couldn't be more proud to have her on stage.
The show featured live interviews with each student, personalized awards honoring their unique contributions, and the reveal of the Gravity Yearbook — a document showcasing their work and serving as a reference for the next generation of explorers!
Congratulations again to these passionate students and enjoy the full show below!
Watch the full show: https://lnkd.in/eAFUi7Be
Learn more about the Gravity Awards: https://lnkd.in/eMA63sXJ
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Slooh Welcomes Camp Cosmos as an Official Partner
We're thrilled to announce our partnership with Camp Cosmos, a week-long astronomy camp for middle school students led by Dr. Jason Steffen at UNLV. Camp Cosmos is also expanding to new campuses, the first being Snow College in Utah. Campers receive a full year of Slooh access as part of the program, and they've put it to good use. This summer, attendees were scheduling missions and comparing captured images with each other by day one. As one camper put it, even a "mid" capture was still amazing.
Dr. John Boisvert, Slooh's Director of Curriculum and a Las Vegas local, has been working directly with Camp Cosmos this summer — attending sessions, observing how campers use the platform, and gathering feedback firsthand. Camp Cosmos II (a camp for advanced students) is also piloting Slooh Quests for the first time, with students choosing a Quest, working through it independently, and presenting their findings on the final day.
The partnership is already producing standout astronomers: Venn, a Camp Cosmos student, is among Slooh's top Gravity Points earners this season. We can't wait to see what this community discovers next.
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How the University of North Texas Revamped Astro 101 with AstroVenture & Slooh
Introductory astronomy is one of the most popular ways non-science majors meet the universe, but the most exciting parts of the class, a night at the observatory or an hour in the planetarium, have always depended on a clear sky and access to the right facilities. AstroVenture and Slooh address this for both in person or online courses by making intro astronomy courses more engaging and memorable through unique gamification and LIVE online observing experiences. Together they have proven to ignite student curiosity in astronomy regardless of the student’s major or access to on-campus observing.
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Your July Skywatching Guide
July 4 | Mars and Uranus Conjunction
Before dawn, look east for a close pairing between Mars and distant Uranus. Mars shines brightly enough to spot with the naked eye, while Uranus appears as a faint bluish point just nearby. If you have never observed Uranus before, this is one of the easiest opportunities of the year to find it.
July 8–9 | Venus Meets Regulus
Brilliant Venus glides close to Regulus, the brightest star in Leo, low in the western sky after sunset. Venus dramatically outshines the blue-white star, creating one of July's prettiest evening conjunctions and an easy target for casual skywatchers.
July 8–13 | Mars Near Aldebaran
Mars passes near Aldebaran, the bright orange-red eye of Taurus, in the pre-dawn eastern sky. Because both appear reddish, the pairing creates an unusual visual — Aldebaran's steady starlight beside Mars's brighter planetary glow.
July 11 | Moon, Mars, and the Pleiades
Before dawn, a slender crescent Moon (about 15% illuminated), Mars, and the Pleiades star cluster all meet in the constellation Taurus. All three are visible to the naked eye, but binoculars will reveal the Pleiades in their full sparkling detail.
July 14 | New Moon
The New Moon brings the darkest skies of the month — ideal conditions for deep-sky observing. This is a great window for summer nebulae, globular clusters, fainter galaxies, and wide-field Milky Way views. Schedule a Slooh telescope session for your best views of the month.
July 16–17 | Crescent Moon and Venus
A delicate crescent Moon appears beside dazzling Venus in the western sky just after sunset — likely the month's most photogenic naked-eye event and an excellent opportunity for sky photography.
July 20 | Moon Near Spica
The first quarter Moon passes close to Spica, the brightest star in Virgo, in the evening sky. A simple but beautiful pairing, and a great way to learn one of the spring-summer sky's signature stars.
July 24 | Moon Near Antares
Look south after dark to see the waxing gibbous Moon pass near Antares, the brilliant red supergiant at the heart of Scorpius. The colorful pairing stands out even from suburban locations.
July 29 | Full Buck Moon
July's Full Moon rises at sunset and remains visible all night. Its traditional name reflects the season when young white-tailed deer bucks begin to grow their first antlers. Also known as the Thunder Moon and Hay Moon, it rises golden and oversized near the horizon — an effect of perspective rather than actual size.
July 30–31 | Delta Aquariid Meteor Shower Peak
The Delta Aquariids reach peak activity with up to 20–25 meteors per hour under ideal conditions. This year, the nearly full Moon will reduce visibility of fainter meteors, but brighter streaks should still appear throughout the night. The shower also serves as a warm-up for August's Perseids, which arrive under much better viewing conditions.
Want to observe these events LIVE? Log in to Slooh and explore!
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July Quest Guide
July brings warm summer nights in the Northern Hemisphere, cool winter nights in the Southern Hemisphere, a bright full moon, and plenty of opportunities to explore our place in the cosmos. From the Moon and nearby stars to distant galaxies and
satellites orbiting Earth, these Quests offer something for every aspiring astronomer.
🦌 Under the Buck Moon: July’s full moon takes center stage in the Buck Moon 2026 Quest, where Members discover the origins of this seasonal lunar name and capture the full moon on July 29, 2026. Named for the time of year when deer begin growing new antlers, the Buck Moon offers a fascinating connection between the night sky and the natural world.
⭐ The Life of a Sun-Like Star: In the Stars Like Ours Quest, Members investigate the life cycle of stars similar to our Sun. By capturing stars at different stages of evolution, they’ll build a visual timeline that reveals how ordinary stars are born, change over billions of years, and ultimately reach the ends of their lives.
🌙 Exploring Our Cratered Neighbor: The Our Cratered Neighbor Quest takes Members on a journey across the Moon’s rugged surface. By capturing lunar images with different Slooh telescopes, Members learn how craters form, explore telescope fields of view, and discover why the Moon looks so different from the smooth world early astronomers once imagined.
🔤 An Astronomical Alphabet Adventure: In the ABCs of Slooh Quest, Members embark on a scavenger hunt across the Universe, capturing twenty-six celestial objects—one for every letter of the alphabet. Along the way, they’ll encounter some of the most spectacular galaxies, nebulae, star clusters, and other wonders visible through Slooh’s telescopes.
👽 The Search for Life Beyond Earth: The Are We Alone Quest invites Members to explore one of humanity’s biggest questions. Using Slooh’s telescopes, they’ll investigate exoplanets, study stars and galaxies, and learn how the Drake Equation helps scientists estimate the possibility of extraterrestrial life in the Milky Way.
🛰️ Eyes on Earth from Orbit: In the Satellite Explorer Quest, Members discover how satellites such as Sentinel-2 observe our planet from space. Through real satellite imagery and data analysis, they’ll learn about electromagnetic waves, orbits, remote sensing, and the technology that helps us better understand Earth’s changing environment.
These Quests are a great way to keep curiosity growing throughout the summer, connecting Members with everything from our nearest celestial neighbor to the possibility of life among the stars.
Spotlight
Student Spotlight: Tini (Lương Long Giang)
Tini is a 14-year-old student from Vietnam and a proud member of Slooh's 2026 Gravity Guild. Her journey with Slooh began through the Cosmic Girls organization, where she was first introduced to the platform, and she hasn't looked back since.
Over the past year, Tini has used Slooh as her home base for exploring and communicating her passion for astronomy, culminating in three remarkable contributions to the Gravity Awards Finale Showcase: co-hosting the event, designing the official Gravity Yearbook, and creating the personalized awards certificates presented to each student. On stage, Tini was a natural! She was poised, warm, and very excited to celebrate her fellow students. We are so glad to have her in the Slooh community — and we can't wait to see what she does next.
Featured Slooh 1000
Ring Nebula (M57)
We see M57 through one of its poles, as opposed to its equator. The nebula gained its nickname due to its structure, a vivid blue-green center surrounded by an orange ring.
"The Ring Nebula, also known as Messier 57 (M57), is a famous planetary nebula located in the constellation Lyra. It represents the final stages of a sun-like star’s life, when the star sheds its outer layers into space, forming a glowing shell of gas. The nebula’s iconic ring-like appearance comes from our vantage point on Earth—its true structure is more like a three-dimensional doughnut of ionized gas expanding outward from the hot white dwarf at its center. Radiating in vibrant hues of red, green, and blue, the Ring Nebula offers a beautiful glimpse of what our own Sun may look like billions of years from now."
Observer, Meowth Right (Alex)
Schedule a mission to the Ring Nebula!
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