APOD 20th anniversary

Jerry Bonnell: I was in graduate school at the University of Maryland and have essentially spent my post PhD career (since the late 1980s) at  NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center.  I think I’ve pretty much worked on astronomical satellite projects there that have wandered around the electromagnetic spectrum, like the Cosmic Background Explorer, International Ultraviolet Explorer, Compton Gamma-ray Observatory, and eventually my current project Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.  Bob Nemiroff and I shared an office when we both worked for Compton GRO.  That’s really where I became interested in cosmic gamma-ray bursts and Bob and I had some interesting gamma-ray astronomy collaborations when we weren’t distracted by other things, like APOD.

Robert Nemiroff: As you might be aware, I put together a few stories about my fields of specialty and professional milestones here. SInce then (2011), I have ben involved in the publication of several things, but the one that got the most press attention was a whimsical look for time travelers on the Internet. The description is here.

Jerry Bonnell: Amateur photography and astronomy were hobbies of mine when I was growing up, but that was during the “film era” of imaging.  I was actually a photographer for my high school and university newspapers and I did learn my way around developing and printing in the darkroom.  Imaging ( and processing!) in the digital age is very different and while I do experiment now and then I am mostly a point and shoot family vacation photographer.  That said, I do have some experience in astronomical imaging for projects I’ve worked on at Goddard.  Needless to say, imaging at gamma-ray energies presents some challenge. Here’s an APOD image I actually took during an observing trip to Wyoming Infrared Observatory. I think I was looking out the observatory kitchen window at dawn after a long night’s work when I noticed the moonset over the mountains.  I got excited, grabbed a camera laying on the table, and ran outside to take the picture.  As I stepped into the snow I realized I was not wearing shoes, though.

Robert Nemiroff: Unfortunately, I am not myself an accomplished astrophotographer. One thing I did do is lead probably the first group to deploy fisheye night sky web cameras. Starting in 2001, we called it the CONCAM project and had these sky monitors at most major astronomical observatories within a few years. Since these cameras took sky images every 3 minutes and 56 seconds and lasted for years, technically I have participated in the taking quite a large number of astronomy images! On occasion, a cool one would end up on APOD, like here! The CONCAM project has now wound down, although I’d like to think it started a paradigm since now anyone can buy an even better night sky web camera commercially.

Robert Nemiroff: In brief, APOD started in 1995 in discussions between Jerry and I when we shared an office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Jerry Bonnell: Yes, Bob and I were office mates at Goddard and as a result had many enjoyable collaborations.  APOD is probably the most successful.  This was in 1995 when the internet was relatively new.  I think APOD grew out of a desire to explore the world wide web and contribute something to it.  I also think we both just like to look at the pictures.

Robert Nemiroff: APOD was created at NASA and is partly funded by NASA. We think of apod.nasa.gov as APOD”s flagship site, but actually APOD has many mirror sites and is translated into about 20 languages. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be a Hungarian language of APOD presently, so if any readers would like to start one, please contact us!

Robert Nemiroff: Jerry and I essentially work independently, including selecting images. Typically, I will do the beginnings of the week, and Jerry will do the ends. There are actually now some months where we do not communicate at all. Other times, like when we are at the same conference together, we typically hang out together and catch up on each other’s family. But we don’t pick images for APOD together even then.

Jerry Bonnell: Of course when we shared an office we could collaborate more closely, but now things have evolved in to a more independent approach.  We usually just agree to make our own selections and write-ups and try to avoid both choosing the same image to feature.

Robert Nemiroff: Jerry and I alone select all of the APOD images and write up all of the APOD texts. We transfer these to the flagship NASA site. Past that, we do have a group of great volunteers that take this information and run APOD’s mirror sites, including all of APOD’s social media sites. Also, they run the Asterisk discussion forum. I have had (and still have) graduate students who help answer some of APOD’s email. Oh, and now we have people who themselves have started a Friends of APOD organization that accepts donations.

Robert Nemiroff: Of course, I can only speak for myself, not Jerry. I am like a big kid and when I see an image I find really interesting: I say “WOW” to myself and know right off that it will be an APOD. Trying to step back, if I think the image will one day end up in an astronomy text book, it should be an APOD. If the image is particularly unique and educational, it should be an APOD. If the image is a discovery image and getting a lot of buzz, it should be an APOD. One idea is to make the APOD archive a definitive list of the best astronomy images ever.

Jerry Bonnell: More than once I’ve seen the APOD archive of images described as eclectic and I would agree with that.  I guess Bob and I just connect with and interpret images in a very broad way, probably because we do have an astronomical perspective.  Regardless of the source, professional, amateur, or point and shoot family vacation photographer, I would choose an APOD image to be topical, tell a story, or share an experience and make it accessible.  I don’t really have a hard criteria for selecting an image but I do think that astronomical imaging can be considered a confluence of science and art. (Full disclosure, I married an art historian.)

Robert Nemiroff: This is a good question without a simple answer. If two completely different images are forced together, then that is too fake for me to put on APOD. However, if a sky is captured in one series of images from one location, and then from the same location a foreground image is quickly captured and added, that is OK for APOD with me. I don’t mind if people change the colors, but I do prefer image colors similar to human perception, or by assigning colors scientifically so that the image carries higher scientific and educational value.

Jerry Bonnell: I believe that for some the definition of authenticity is based on expectations of what the eye might see or even what a film based camera might easily record.   But, for example, the detectors in digital cameras are much more sensitive.  Particularly at night they can record scenes you can’t really see that are no less authentic. As long as I understand how the image was created and processed, I’d consider other factors in selecting it for an APOD.  I would also try to explain how the image was created in the APOD write-up.

Jerry Bonnell: Telescopes, cameras, and computers that enable a high level of astro-imaging are more accessible (cheaper) now than in the past.  You can make really good images in your own time with your own ideas from your own backyard.  I think that has made the hobby more attractive around the globe and APOD has benefited.  It maybe that APOD promotes the popularity of astro-imaging as well.  As for submissions, on any given day I would say I have to choose one of 10 images that I think would make a great APOD.

Robert Nemiroff: APOD receives about 10 image submissions a day. It has gone up slightly over the years but has remained surprisingly constant. This might be because image-submitters are generally aware of APOD’s high standards and so do not submit mediocre images.  Yes, I do think that the upswing in astrophotography is a global phenomenon. This can be seen by noting that APOD has run images from a very diverse array of countries in recent years!

Robert Nemiroff: Since APOD’s design remains functional, I see no important reason to change it. To do so would take time and effort that we would prefer to spend on selecting and writing-up APODs. Also, the site is so simple that we fully understand how it works and so can fix it if something goes wrong. Were the site designed by others and much more complicated, we may become stuck if something went wrong.

Robert Nemiroff: At this point, after 20 years, I think that I have forgotten how to stop. It is part of my life but perhaps not so strange — there are shop keepers, for example, who have opened their shop every day for much longer than 20 years — it is just a different routine! Mostly, it is a lot of fun and quite a privilege to find, select, and write up great astronomy images — and do that for NASA no less. Even without APOD, I would be drawn to them on the web anyway since I have been interested in astronomy for almost as long as I can remember. It is fun to think that somehow, someway, the world has configured itself so that whenever anyone anywhere takes a great astronomy image, they send it to me!

Jerry Bonnell: Over the 20 APOD years so far it has become such a joy to look through my email each day at new images.  I feel like a kid sitting in a window seat on planet Earth.  I just don’t think I’ll ever get tired of it.

Robert Nemiroff: In my view, APOD is more of an idea than a specific web site. Therefore, even if Jerry and I stop tomorrow, there should be a new astronomy image highlighted somewhere, somehow, every day. This is because astronomy, space exploration, human curiosity, and adventure are all well encapsulated, in a small but universal way, by a daily space image. Conversely, back in the real world, we are getting older and APOD’s funding is not as steady as we would like. Therefore, practically, the best way to be sure that there will be an APOD tomorrow is if APOD’s “Tomorrow” line is not blank.