I created the Merger Checking (which now has over a million clicks), three Pea Hunts (All finished) and now an unofficial irregular galaxy classification. What started as 80 lines of Perl code is now 800 (about 50 of the original 80 lines still survive), but can now support almost any Galaxy Zoo mini-project.These mini-projects will never be as pretty as the main GZ sites, but they are quick to build, modify and use.

Read more

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

A quick followup to last week’s announcement of my talk on the Zoo and Hanny’s Voorwerp - the PDF visuals and MP3 narration are now available online. Truth in advertising compels me to point out that we ended up not being able to record the talk live, so I redid the narration later. As best I can tell, this version was less entertaining than the one for a live audience (as well as being a good bit shorter). You also have to figure out when to page forward…

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Just a quick notice that our spin correlations paper was accepted by the Monthly Notices of Royal Astronomical Society (where all Galaxy Zoo papers go)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

We’re now inviting our loyal blog and forum readers to give us a hand in testing Zoo 2, which is in beta as they say on the internet. To take part, follow this link to complete a short survey about your experiences with Galaxy Zoo so far. The whole thing shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes, and you’ll be rewarded with the link to our trial site for Galaxy Zoo 2. Once you’re classifying away, share your thoughts with us either here or in the forum. 

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

For those Voorwerp aficionados (we decided on the Forum that these might collectively be known as a Vreemdelingen Voorwerp Vrienden Vereniging or something) living in the area, take note that I’ll be giving a presentation on the Zoo and especially Hanny’s Voorwerp next week in Birmingham (Alabama, not England, although steel production has been important in both). It will be at the meeting of the Birmingham Astronomical Society, 7 p.m. on Tuesday, October 21. The location will be in the planetarium on the campus of Samford University. Anyone interested is heartily invited to attend. For those not so close, I plan to post a PDF of the visuals later.In less pleasant news, the Hubble observations are obviously on hold, since the servicing mission by shuttle astronauts has been delayed. This is to allow time for mission planners to assess the failure of crucial electronics which format science data for relay to the ground, whether its backup system comes on line properly, and whether a replacement can be added to the mission’s already-crowded manifest. The mission has now been pushed into early 2009, and observations with the new and repaired instruments will be gradually phased in afterward.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites