APOD assessment poll #7

[Derrick Watt]

I look at APOD each morning as part of my wake up routine.
It is a great way to start the day, with stimulating images and sometimes thought provoking data.

[Galaxian]

Had to put my guess at between 5 to 10 years. I'm sure I visited it many times over 10 years ago before actively following it.

"Follow" is slightly ambiguous, I would have preferred something like "viewed" or "looked at" or "visited". I've had APoD as my homepage in every browser on every machine I own since I first found it, but I possibly don't access the Internet every day. Most days, yes, but there must have been a few I missed. [Additionally, I have set up other people's boxes, PC and Mac, and I often set APoD as their homepages. Most of them keep the setting.] On the other hand, when I was less busy on a night shift at work I sometimes went through APoD either by day or by link from one APoD to another, so I've seen quite a lot of images.
Some I have even accidentally downloaded (no, I've no idea how that happened) and added to the rotating wallpapers on my machines. Three APoD images even found their way onto home-made celebration cards I made for the wife; one was an image of her galaxy, the galaxy I gave her that year for her birthday, a lovely grand spiral, the other was a gorgeous image of the nebula I gave her instead of dead flowers for a Valentine's Day gift, the nebula formerly known as the Rosette, now known as her nebula.
I do skim past some APoDs. Anything that's a video I pretty much ignore and any "happy dance" ugliness I find repulsive; save for those APoD is pretty much usually beautiful and awesome.
Thank you all for it.

[jims005]

I set up APOD to be my browser's home page so that each time I start my browser to get onto the web I see APOD.
js

[ckeating]

Its my homepage and the first thing I see when I open my browser every morning.

[jpcarroll]

Great site! 1st place visited each day. Suggestion: fewer dust clouds, more observatory stuff. Thanks

[Malcolm Mitchell]

Something to look forward to every day.

[Russheitz]

Although the word is wildly overused so as to become meaningless, the APOD photos I see as soon as I turn on my computer every morning are truly "awe" inspiring, and incredibly beautiful! The photos, especially of deep space and the Deep Field Survey, truly put all things earthly in perspective. Keep up the good work. And thanks for allowing us to see these magnificent sights every day!

[Galaxian]

THANK YOU! Enjoy especially the pictures of the planets with their rings and satellites. Why are so many, if not all, satellites in the same plane? Much I don't understand, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying and appreciating the picture. I may not check daily, but I do catch up on all. Staggers my imagination, what is out there. THANKS again.

The balls of rock and gas orbiting Sol were formed from a cloud of gas and dust that collapsed in on itself 4.5 thousand million years ago or so. As it collapsed it began to rotate. As it swirled around it fell into a flattish disk, like a rotating fried egg with gritty bits. Bits coagulated into rocks and boulders, which collided to form mountains, which smooshed together to form giant planets. The larger planets, out in the cold and darkness far from the new Sun, collected gases like hydrogen and helium, but they all mostly stayed orbiting the Sun in the same plane as the original disk, the plane of Sol's equator, the plane of the ecliptic, the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun, more or less. Why? Why not? There were no forces to move them very far out of the disk, so they remained in the orbits they started with.
As the swirling cloud of the Sol System collapsed into rings to form the major worlds, those rings formed sub-rings that were to eventually collapse into the worlds themselves and their satellite systems. As the rings pretty much rotated as units the satellites mostly ended up orbiting around their parents in the same plane as the worlds' equators. Mostly.
It isn't hard and fast, nailed-down, precision-made engineering like a Swiss watch, it is more like an avalanche or its more destructive kin a pyroclastic flow - all chaos and rumbling and noise. That is why the system isn't perfectly ordered. Little, tiny effects, like the swirl that formed Uranus starting in a slightly odd rotational mode, are built on and exaggerated until we end up with a world, and its satellites rotating around its axis at right angles to its orbital plane. That is not something that should surprise us. Indeed, the opposite is the case. We should have been astonished if every moon, every rock, every comet and planet and dust gain orbited Sol in perfectly circular orbits in the plane of Sol's equator.
That tiny influences built up over billions of years to create something messy and not perfect is not surprising.
Drop dark ink into clear water. The cloud of inky water does not spread out in neat spheres, gradually becoming more dilute as they expand, it forms *clouds*, ragged, messy and irregular.
If we knew the masses, motions and electrical charge distributions of every particle in the early Solar System, and we knew the path and energy of every photon of light Sol ever emitted, we probably still couldn't calculate the eventual shape of what those bits would make, we couldn't calculate Earth. The numbers aren't precise enough, our measurements could never be exact enough and there are other stars out there messing things a little.
In short: the moons orbit round their worlds in the planes of their world equators because the disks that made them orbited in that way. Some moons, like the distant, tiny moons of Jupiter, are possibly captured asteroids and orbit at strange angles, sometimes even backwards. And Neptune has a very large moon that *seems* to have been captured, but I suspect it was merely a counter-rotating swirly. Unlikely, yes, but if a small effect is the only effect affecting stuff it can grow to have huge consequences.
Which brings us to Luna, Earth's Moon, *The* Moon. I have two questions about the giant impact idea. Where are all the other moons - surely at least *one* other piece of rock and debris should have lasted? And why is Luna orbiting more in the plane of Sol's equator than that of Earth? It makes far more sense if Luna was merely a subsidiary condensation of the ones that made Earth and Venus than it does to imagine a giant impactor.
But I'm probably wrong there. Many brilliant scientists love the idea of our Moon being formed by a giant rock smashing into a larger Earth. They also like the idea of yet another giant impactor hitting Uranus and tipping the entire system over onto its side. I like the image of erratic condensation swirls, like cyclones inside super-cyclones with a little random irregularity in the mix making things prettier.
Chances are, I'm wrong.
But the essential background, a huge disk falling into lots of little disks that condense into worlds and moons and other debris, is basically sound.
I hope this helps...

[Moira]

A little bit under 2 years, since I discovered you. You're not well publicized, so to speak, and if astronomy enthusiasts hadn't started a thread about space on our forums, I still wouldn't have heard of you.

[ionmat2000]

I have been enjoying APOD for over 4 years now. It is the first item that I look at, after the old laptop fires up.
Thank you for starting my day off, puts the headlines into perspective.

[WallyBalls]

Bonnell still had dark hair when I started looking at APOD.

[ejc653]

I've been following APOD for over ten years and one of your pictures has been my desktop since I started. Please continue this outstanding site.
Thank You,
Edward J. Cox

[Galaxian]

A little bit under 2 years, since I discovered you. You're not well publicized, so to speak, and if astronomy enthusiasts hadn't started a thread about space on our forums, I still wouldn't have heard of you.

Moira, where would you publicise such a thing?
APoD has been mentioned on UKland's BBC TV 's one "technology" programme "Click". In the "Webscape" section. See the web page at http://www.bbc.co.uk/click for the "Webscape" archives.
APoD is the sort of thing that should be mentioned by Science teachers in schools, but how many know of the site? And how often can a teacher use one source as a starting point for lectures? Sure, classes could be given APoD based tasks, essays and other projects, but even that could only be a couple of times per year.
So, where else? Google has APoD highlighted but only if you search for it. If you don't know APoD exists...
When I help people with their PC's (Mac, tablet, laptop, whatever) I often set APoD as one of their home pages, I tell them I've done it and why. Most keep the site, especially if I set it up on a day with a pretty picture and not a "happy dance" day.
But do many people think that's either ethical or moral? I'm imposing my taste and my pro-science prejudices on people who might loath sciencey things. Is that right? I do both show my "victims" how to alter the homepage and do it for them if they prefer something else, so I'm not obsessive about it. Does anyone else do this? Set APoD as a homepage for other people?
I also let anyone I email know about APoD eventually. At some point I'll see something they'll like and I'll pass on the linkie. Some of them, too, become watchers.
The BBC has one, monthly Astronomy programme, "Sky At Night", which is often cancelled to make way for sport. It is usually broadcast at weird o'clock on a Monday morning (or what the BBC call "Sunday Night TV"). APoD could be mentioned on this, but it would only reach people already enthused by Astronomy. Them and utter insomniacs who can't be bothered to change the channel.
Where else could we advertise APoD? The BBC National News isn't likely to think it is as important as a person batting balls around or the latest divorced actor, so that's not a likely venue.
Billboards cost money. We could use graffiti but that would give APoD a bad name.
I can't think of many places APoD *can* advertise.
Can anyone else?

[AngieDennis]

I just discovered this site and I love it!!

[hge]

I make it habit to view the APOD every morning and wonder at beauty of our universe, anyone who believes that this planet was an accident is foolish in my belief.

I usually save the JPEGs and see now that I have 168 saved.

THANK you for the glimspes into our beautiful universe.

Harvey G Elethorp

[DocRoc]

I start most every day with a look at the latest "AstroPic" -- always interesting and more fun than the weather!

[vinicius]

As a matter of fact I am following APOD since its creation on June, 16th 1995. I collect all pics and explanation texts.
Regards and congratulations.

[Guest]

[quote="RJN"]Thank you very much for your interest in Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD). We very much appreciate the time you have given us viewing our images and reading the explanations; your dedication drives us to keep doing the site. APOD will likely be asking other questions in the near future; your responses will help us better understand viewers like you, and will allow us to improve what we do for you.

Please select the answer that best reflects when you first started following APOD regularly, assuming that you do. Please leave any comments you may have on this topic below.

Thank you![ I have been following it for over 12 years. I also raised my sons with it. The universe is beautiful and expansive. I love to wonder and marvel at the possibility of all that is out there.

[gilgamorph]

what geckzilla said.

I may go several days between APODs, but I always look back to catch up!
The explanations of the science behind the images are what truly inspire and impress us.
Thanks for all the wonderful images. (more cosmology please!)

[gilgamorph]

[K1NS]

I answered 2 to 5 years, but that is virtually daily. APOD is the first thing I look at after I power up the laptop. Thank you, APOD, for mornings filled with stars.

[Robin]

I have APOD as the home page on both my browsers, Safari and Chrome, so it is the first sight I see when logging onto the Internet. Furthermore, I've downloaded many of the most breathtakingly exquisite photos from APOD, and use them as desktop images and screen savers. As a writer, I spend my life at my computer--and APOD images saturate my hours, bringing beauty and humbling perspective steadily into my day. And I've turned on numerous friends to the joys of your work and your site. Thank you, APOD!

[Shadrach]

APOD is my home page and it is a great way to start the day. It impress es on me the omnipotence of the GOD of Abraham, Issac & Jacob. I usually include the link to it in my e-mails to people I think care or who will be as impressed by it as I am. Thanks for doing this. It really makes my day!

[ruthpetit]

First thing in the morning, daily since June 16, 1997

[CarlReuter]

APOD has been my browser home page since I can remember.