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  • Galaxy Zoo Update

    Galaxyzoo
    12th July 2007 - By chrislintott

    Just a very brief update on Galaxy Zoo. We’ve reached our target of more than 30,000 users and have just upgraded the hardware behind the site to make sure we can cope with as many people as once. We’re hoping to get a couple of new features up on the site in the next 24 hours, and first priority is a discussion forum so people can compare images.

    We’ve just been mentioned on slash dot so please bear with us during the tsunami of traffic currently heading our way. If the site goes down again then I’ll try and post updates here and if you’re into that sort of thing, there’s a Galaxy Zoo group on facebook.

    Today’s pretty image is a ring galaxy – if you see one of these, we want to know about it.

    n512382235_87658_5996.jpg

  • 28 Comments to “Galaxy Zoo Update”

    • Dave Pearson on July 13, 2007

      30,000 users? Already? Wow! Well done!

    • Troy on July 13, 2007

      If anybody wants to post amazing Galaxy Zoo galaxies they come across, they should do so at http://galaxyzoo.wordpress.com

    • Stuart Atkinson on July 13, 2007

      Congratulations again on the stunning success of Galaxy Zoo. I wonder if you guys realised you’d be letting loose such a monster upon the unsuspecting world? You’re a global phenomena now, and have unwittingly condemned thousands of people to hours of spine-ruining, RSI-inducing mouse-clicking in the quest for beautiful galaxies… ;-)

      Looking forward to seeing those “new features” you mentioned, and curious to find out what they are. The discussion forum will be great, but I fear I’ll need another few hours adding to the day to give me enough time to spend on there…!

    • chrislintott on July 13, 2007

      Add extra hours to the day? No, it’s much easier to create a website to get people to do things for you….

    • Irregular Blue Galaxies on July 13, 2007

      What about the irregular blues?
      They have no spiralishness nor any ellipticity.
      I have no button for them :(

    • Alice Sheppard on July 13, 2007

      Well, I strongly object to that, Chris. I think you zookeepers ought to be putting the rest of the world onto a spaceship that gets up to a relativistic speed, thus slowing down their time, and giving us zoo visitors a few extra weeks to play.

    • Maile on July 13, 2007

      Chris, does that mean you have a lot of free time now? What are you going to do with it?

      And anybody who hasn’t already done so should go to Troy’s link above; the first image he has posted is quite spectacular.

      I think I’m going to end up using all of my computer’s memory from storing images!
      Maile

    • Alice Sheppard on July 13, 2007

      By the way, we seriously need two more categories: 1) Cute little cluster; and 2) Blurred Blob. :-)

    • Roxanne on July 13, 2007

      Wonderful fun. Will the “See you Galaxies” feature be live soon?

    • derek on July 14, 2007

      for pity’s sake, you should have said something about it earlier. i saw 5 of them tuesday, but haven’t seen any since.

    • bunny burton-bradford on July 14, 2007

      Hi Chris (and other fosters) -

      Galaxy Zoo contains galaxies that are clearly spiral in nature, but whose arms are too indistinct to definitely categorise as either CW or CCW – so how about a button labeled “Spiral Indistinct”? or some such name.

      I agreed with the above general concensus – Blue blobs, smudgy blobs, etc prob would warrant a separate button.

      Great Fun!!

    • bunny burton-bradford on July 14, 2007

      Opps! “Fosters” should be Posters ;-)

    • bunny burton-bradford on July 14, 2007

      Ring galaxy as requested…

      Galaxy ref : 587739379912737023

    • Perfection on July 14, 2007

      Ring: 587742593084686442

    • monica butcher on July 14, 2007

      Completely agree with Alice and Bunny about blues, blobs, and uncertain spirals! If you want the job done well…give us more buttons please. Even after using the navigate and zoom tools, some objects still don’t fit the given categories

    • robotriot on July 14, 2007

      Here’s something ringy for you: http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587726015073353815

      I hope the extra features are online real soon, I’m a real sucker for statistics :D

    • Bunny Burton-Bradford on July 16, 2007

      Yet another ring…

      587742191523921993

      http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/chart/chart.asp?ra=205.32620796&dec=24.49619916

    • Nezelan on July 18, 2007

      Here are some rings:

      588017720111661086
      587739098060488790
      588023669165654226
      588017109685633150

      Nezelan

    • Ed Spencer on July 18, 2007

      Chris – check out http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587736542564057540 for what looks like another. pretty ring galaxy

      Preeetty

    • chrislintott on July 18, 2007

      Section8 – the short answer is that it’s something really worth looking at – we’ll get back to you. Here’s the zoomed out version

      http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/chart/navi.asp?ra=228.98460007&dec=43.16680152

      Thanks for all the rings – there’s some serious head scratching about this.

    • Lonewolf on July 18, 2007

      Hey Chris, I’m really getting into this GalazyZoo thing.

      I think I found a ring galaxy, its a bit faint though. What do you think?

      http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=588017991223345264

      Tim

    • monica butcher on July 18, 2007

      Dear Chris,

      I’ve been on Galaxy Zoo for a few days ( i.e. many hours!) now and am just beginning to realise what an awesome and humbling experience this is. The most amazing galaxies are just popping up on my laptop! Rather than speeding up the classifying process I find I’m now slowing down in order to really appreciate what I am seeing. It’s a little like Howard Carters comments on opening Tutankhamuns tomb : “I see wonderful things”. Beautiful!

      P.S. sorry about submitting 3 ring galaxies in the space of 10 minutes last night! Scratch, scratch!

    • Ann Croft on July 21, 2007

      Hello everyone
      I’ve been doing this since day one and have three personal favourites, quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen:
      http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/chart/chart.asp?ra=159.01606479&dec=35.15377878 looks like a sleeping angel and
      http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/chart/chart.asp?ra=179.36891755&dec=31.08395723 (a blue stork?) and
      http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/chart/chart.asp?ra=206.77888807&dec=33.88044179 the blue dragon

      Are we allowed to distribute these pictures and post them on our own websites, with a note saying they’re the property of Galaxy Zoo?

      How about making a calendar of the 12 best pictures for 2008 and raising funds for the project or charity?
      Ann/galaxybabe

    • gill C on July 24, 2007

      This is up there with my first giant asian mantis hatching 300 nymphs this week as one of those absolutely wonderful things that make life exciting.
      Galaxy Zoo is my new obsession!!!

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