Astronomy Picture of the Day

Infobox Website
name = Astronomy Picture of the Day
type =


url = http://apod.nasa.gov/
commercial = No
owner = NASA and MTU
author = Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell
launch date = 1995-06-16The Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) website is a service provided by NASA and Michigan Technological University (MTU). According to the website, “Each day a different image or photograph of our universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.” [cite web
last=Nemiroff
first=Robert
coauthors=Jerry Bonnell
title=APOD homepage
publisher=NASA
date=2007-04-03
url=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
accessdate=2007-04-03] The photograph is not necessarily taken on the exact day that it is displayed, and images are sometimes repeated.cite web
last=Nemiroff
first=Robert
coauthors=Jerry Bonnell
title=APOD Frequently Asked Questions
publisher=NASA
url=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap_faq.html
accessdate=2007-04-03] However, the pictures and descriptions are often related to current events in astronomy and space exploration. The images are either photographs, images taken at other wavelengths and displayed with false colors, or artist’s conceptions. Past images are stored in the APOD Archive, with the first image appearing on June 16, 1995. This initiative has received support from NASA, the National Science Foundation, and MTU. The images are sometimes authored by people or organisations outside of NASA, and therefore APOD images are often copyrighted, unlike many other NASA image galleries.

APOD was presented at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in 1996. [cite web
title=AAS Meeting 187th Program
publisher=American Astronomical Society
year=1996
url=http://www.aas.org/publications/baas/v27n4/aas187/S005006.html
accessdate=2007-04-03] Its practice of using hypertext was analysed in a paper in 2000. [cite web
last=Carr
first=Leslie
coauthors=Wendy Hall and Timothy Miles-Board
title=Writing and Reading Hypermedia on the Web
publisher=Technical Report, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton
date=2000-02-29
url=http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/2643/01/WRWH.html
accessdate=2007-04-03] It received a Scientific American Sci/Tech Web Award in 2001. [cite web
title=Sci/Tech Web Awards 2001—Astronomy and Astrophysics
publisher=Scientific American
date=2001-05-14
url=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00049BA0-DDBD-1CF3-93F6809EC5880000
accessdate=2007-04-03] In 2002, the website was featured in an interview with Nemiroff on CNN "Saturday Morning News". [cite web
title=Saturday Morning News — Astronomy Picture of Day transcript
publisher=CNN
date=2002-09-21
url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0209/21/smn.06.html
accessdate=2007-04-03] APOD was the Featured Collection in the November 2004 issue of "D-Lib Magazine". [cite journal
last=Wilson
first=Bonita
title=Featured Collection
journal=D-Lib Magazine
volume=10
issue=11
month=November | year=2004
issn=1082-9873
doi= 10.1045/november2004-featured.collection
accessdate=2007-04-03
curly=yes]

Notes

External links

* [http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html Astronomy Picture of the Day website]
* [http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html APOD Archive]
* [http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html About APOD] , includes a list of mirror websites
* [http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~gtracy/astronomy/signup.htm Greg Tracy's email delivery service]
* [http://www.acme.com/jef/apod/] Hosts an unofficial RSS feed
* [http://apod.corank.com/ APOD@coRank] — RSS feeds, comments, user generated ratings