Well, islader2, I think anybody's appreciation of an astrophoto depends strongly on what kind of astropictures the individual likes to see in the first place. Some people like nothing better than a new image of Mars, others go to seventh heaven over a mapped color image of the Sun in ultraviolet, and others love an artist's impression of a newly-discovered planet in orbit around an alien sun (or even in orbit around a
pair of alien suns!!).
For myself, I love galaxies, as long as they contain at least some star formation. I love galaxies that are far away, but I love our own galaxy, too. (Naturally; I live in it.)
I love images that show the beauty of our galaxy. To reveal a huge amount of detail in truly sparkling RGB color, you need to concentrate on the galaxy itself and not include any background. But personally, I think that pictures of the Milky Way which show an Earthly landscape as a background is a beautiful genre all of their own. After all, these images underscore an important fact: We are inside the Milky Way. In fact, we are a part of it.
Within the limitations and constraints that are inherent in this kind of image, the "Earth and sky image", I think today's APOD is splendid. We see a dramatic, apparently strongly hilly landscape, with the picturesque outlines of palm trees. Above the landscape we see a very long stretch of the Milky Way, which curves down and to the left in apparent tandem with the landscape! That is so well done. It's a truly beautiful composition.
I love the general appearance of the MIlky Way, too. The colors are beautiful, the brightest stars are delightfully brought out, and again the composition is beautiful. Almost in the dead center of the image you can see the apparently brightest star in this part of the MIlky Way, whitish Alpha Centauri. Far from being the intrinsically brightest of all stars, however, Alpha Centauri is, on the other hand, the nearest of all stars apart from the Sun. Not only that, but the brightest component of Alpha Centauri is a star that is remarkably similar to our own star, the Sun. Today's APOD puts us in an Earthly landscape, from which we are looking at the nearest star apart from our own, almost a twin of our own Sun, and at the same time we get to look at a good chunk of our beautiful galaxy.
Note to the right of Alpha Centauri an almost similarly bright but bluish star, Beta Centauri. (Beta Centauri is very far away and intrinsically very bright, so it is by no means a twin of the Sun or of Alpha Centauri.) Note some distance to the lower right of Beta Centauri a dark patch, which is the famous Coalsack. Immediately to the right of the Coalsack is one of the most famous asterisms in the sky, the Southern Cross. But that's not all. Far to the lower right in the picture you find a sort of counterpart to the Southern Cross, the False Cross! Note the reddish star between two palm fronds at lower right. It's Avior, Epsiolon Carinae, a bright K-type giant. To the right of Avior you can find what looks like two blue stars. One is actually a cluster, IC 2391, but the star to the upper left of the cluster is a fairly ordinary main sequence A-type star, Delta Velorum. To the right of one of the upper fronds of the same palm tree, you can see a pair of stars. The brighter of them is Turais, Iota Carinae. It's actually a supergiant star, although a "lesser supergiant", of spectral class A8. Some distance to the right of Turais is a blue star, Kappa Velorum, an intrinsically bright B-type star which is the "fourth leg" of the False Cross.
All in all, I like this image a lot!
Ann
Mangaia's Milky Way
One of the best Milky Way shots I've seen! 
.
). I have made lots of plans too! See this one where I captured the rendez-vous between LCROSS and asteroid (3731) Hancock 
). It is not even at my astrophotography album since this is not (for me) an astronomic photography!
