Starship Asterisk*

Mystic Mountain, the image I voted for, immediately struck me as the most dramatic but after looking at the others longer I could see the drama in them also: it was just more subtle, if such a word can be used in reference to any of these events.

I love another viewer's idea of a picture of the earth for scale. Perhaps in a corner of EACH image scaled appropriately to the size of the image being viewed. Or perhaps settle on one size for the earth and scale the images themselves so that we see a comparison to the size of the earth and a relative comparison of the different phenomena pictured.

Not a vote for any (I voted for "Mystic Mountain") but a vote against.

NO RAW IMAGES. Seriously. APOD, to me, is an example of the best of astronomical images. Raw images plain aren't. If I want raw images, I know where to get them and what news sources will give me them. If I don't know these, then I'm quite happy waiting a few weeks or months for the properly calibrated images.

APOD needs to be about the "WOW!" and then the science. Putting the science first means the wow-factor is lost and that is just wrong. The role of the scientist is that of an educator and outreach is paramount to that role.

Dont know anything about astronomy, but APOD knocks my socks off.
My reason for choosing this picture is because I can identify and know where the sun is so it is real and familiar to me but hey, whodda thought all that was going on on the surface?

Although perhaps not the most stunning, I found it to be the most beautiful.

All of the APOD images are interesting to me. Although "False Kiva" was not astronomy, for me it was great because I've been there. Keep the variety. Nick.

While the magnificence of photos like the Solar prominence and Pismis 24 are awesome and the technical achievement in acquiring the Dione Raw Image is amazing, my personal preference is for the Mystic Mountain photo.

There are a couple reasons: even though I'm almost 70, the kid in me still responds to the color and sense of adventure in this photo - I could see Walt Disney productions using it in one of their animated films.

The other thing that I respond to is the same as standing on the beach and looking out to the horizon - the view is much more interesting when there are some islands or boats in view that help define the sense of space and distance.

I would find it interesting if a photo taken of this area some time ago (if such exists) could be displayed also so that the changes in the shapes of those dust mountains could be contrasted.

I do enjoy these asides to the daily APOD's.

I like the solar prominence, but if you show it, please include a rollover that shows the relative size of the Earth, for example: http://www.naturalhighs.net/Sun_7239.jpg

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All images are clickable for better viewing.

If you would care to share why you voted for a particular image, I'd be interested to know. Thank you!

Other open polls:
[url=http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=19076]Potpourri Poll #2[/url]
[url=http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=19117]Recent Submissions #1[/url]
[url=http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=19122]Recent Submissions #2[/url]
[url=http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=19160]APOD of the Week[/url]

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[size=150][b]Solar prominence[/b][/size]
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/firstlight/
Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory
[url=http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/firstlight/preview/20100330_304sub_069.jpg][img]http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/firstlight/preview/20100330_304sub_069.jpg[/img][/url]


[size=150][b]Pismis 24[/b][/size]
http://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1015a/
Credit: ESO/IDA/Danish 1.5 m/ R. Gendler, U.G. Jørgensen, J. Skottfelt, K. Harpsøe
[url=http://www.eso.org/public/archives/images/screen/potw1015a.jpg][img]http://www.eso.org/public/archives/images/screen/potw1015a.jpg[/img][/url]


[size=150][b]Mystic Mountain[/b][/size]
[url]http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1007a/[/url]
Credit: Hubble Space Telescope
[url=http://www.spacetelescope.org/static/archives/images/wallpaper1/heic1007a.jpg][img]http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/images/hs-2010-13-a-large_web.jpg[/img][/url]


[size=150][b]Dione Raw Image[/b][/size]
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/imagedetails/index.cfm?imageId=3940
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
[url=http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/IMG003940-br500.jpg][img]http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/moons/images/IMG003940-br500.jpg[/img][/url]


[size=150][b]Lagoon Nebula[/b][/size]
[url]http://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1016a/[/url]
Credit: ESO/IDA/Danish 1.5 m/ R. Gendler, U.G. Jørgensen, K. Harpsøe
[url=http://www.eso.org/public/archives/images/large/potw1016a.jpg][img]http://www.eso.org/public/archives/images/wallpaper1/potw1016a.jpg[/img][/url]