Reruns cropping up

[MG]

I'm noticing more repeat presentations of images in APOD. In this month alone I recognized previously shown topics such as the Casimir effect and the solar sail. I expect the preparation of a daily APOD page, with links et al, is very labor-intensive, and perhaps Messrs. Bonner & Nemiroff are taking breaks in the summer -- not quite vacation/holiday, but an easing of the workload for a time. Anyone have any comments, or knowledge, on this?

[Dan Cordell]

Sometimes there are images that have proven to be popular in the past that it can be good to revisit. Also, I believe Dr. Bonnell has been on vacation (correct me if I'm wrong, anyone) and Dr. Nemiroff has been very busy with the Night Sky Live Project, so it could be that a few of the better older ones are being rerun to save time.

[RJN]

Thanks, MG & Dan. Yes. Also, our policy on re-runs (re: "best ofs") is discussed in the APOD FAQ here: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap_faq.html

To quote from that FAQ:

Q4: Have some APOD pictures been run more than once?
A4: Yes. Many of our readers have been with us less than a year and are unaware of some really spectacular or important astronomy pictures. New information about old pictures is becoming available over the WWW. The text and links for rerun pictures will make use of this newly available information. So although the picture might be old, some of the text and links of each APOD will be new. Also, more web surfers have larger bandwidth connections, which allows us to post higher-resolution image files that can be transferred conveniently. Software to handle more sophisticated image file formats has also become more common, so the picture's size and/or format might be new. Lastly, rerunning APODs saves us time and helps us update our archive. In general, our rerun policy currently is to only rerun APODs more than one year old to keep the pictures relatively "new" to new APOD viewers. We will almost never rerun more than two pictures in any given week. So when you load the current APOD,it is still, most probably, a new picture.

- RJN

[Guest]

Dr Nemiroff,

Are there any periods during the year which are relatively slow and, as a result, contributors should consider submitting potentially good material at that time?

Similarly, are there periods which are relatively busy with submissions and, as such, contributors should exercise some restraint?

Thanks.

Anthony.

[Ayiomamitis]

Dr Nemiroff,

I am the author of the previous message. Not only did I forget to log into the system prior to posting but the system itself seems to allow messages from visitors who have not registered (as I just discovered accidently).

Anthony.

[RJN]

Reruns almost always happen on weekends. Almost all weekend APODs are now "updated" reruns. It has been this way now for years. - RJN

[Axel]

As a daily visitor to APOD for several years, fwiw, I am not at all bothered by re-runs. Sometimes it is delightful to find a good old APOD one had forgotten.

[rmiller]

there aren't that many celestial objects. you have to run out soon anyway.

[-=Arramon=-]

there aren't that many celestial objects. you have to run out soon anyway.

You can always move one-quater of an inch to the left and show the thousands of celestial objects from that portion.. =/

ie.. you'll never run out of celestial images because they are too numerous to count.

=) One of my favorite things about our universe. Full of beauty everywhere you look... even dying neutron stars are encompassed with fascination and art in some way.

I luv the Cat's Eye Nebula... that just startles me. It's almost symetrical.. what's the word for a reversed-mirror-image.