4 ms·

Astronomy Picture of the Day is is 28 years old today

69 points by sohkamyung 3y ago

greazy 3y ago
I found the comparison to the age of movie and sports stars extremely obnoxious. Pluto comparison is on point, start with that!
- politelemon 3y ago
  I have no idea who any of them are so it was simply noise I ignored
  - throwbadubadu 3y ago
    True! What I found amazing is that they started with a computer graphic in the style of the xearth desktop background (now xplanet) at that time, loving it (: (Quick earliest link found for 94 https://hewgill.com/xearth/ https://hewgill.com/xearth/ just to add another more meaningful reference date :D)
gsich 3y ago
Is there a recent render of the "earth as neutron star" picture?
placesalt 3y ago
I've yet to find a better source for desktop pictures/wallpapers. Cassini images are probably the prettiest, IMO. The shots of large telescopes on the ground are always a bit inspiring. And the writeups really are nice - IANAA, so it's good to know a /bit/ about what one's looking at.
thom 3y ago
It was probably a couple of years before this that I first understood how powerful the internet could be, when my dad showed me a picture taken by a satellite, and in the background you could see the stars. Here was a crummy beige PC on my dad’s desk, talking to robots in space. Wasted most of my time after that on Usenet and IRC, admittedly, but that was definitely when I caught the bug.
NelsonMinar 3y ago
APOD is great. I'd love to hear an overview of the various ways it's published and their choices on how. The ways to publish "daily interesting stuff" have changed so many times in 28 years. I read it in Feedly, using a third party RSS feed with larger images. https://acme.com/jef/apod/ https://acme.com/jef/apod/
- breput 3y ago
  Just a FYI - there is an official RSS feed[0] now as well. [0] https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  - NelsonMinar 3y ago
    Yes, with tiny thumbnail images; it's only good for forcing you to click into the site. Jef's feed has large images that display right in your feed reader.
frob 3y ago
For a while, I had an Automator script that would set my desktop to the APoD even night. I need to go resurrect that. It was so much better than just accepting the default all the time.
- levysoft 3y ago
  On Mac App Store you can find the free app Juu Background: it's very easy. https://apps.apple.com/it/app/juu-background/id1073241838 https://apps.apple.com/it/app/juu-background/id1073241838

69 points by sohkamyung 3y ago

I found the comparison to the age of movie and sports stars extremely obnoxious. Pluto comparison is on point, start with that!

politelemon 3y ago
I have no idea who any of them are so it was simply noise I ignored
- throwbadubadu 3y ago
  True! What I found amazing is that they started with a computer graphic in the style of the xearth desktop background (now xplanet) at that time, loving it (: (Quick earliest link found for 94 https://hewgill.com/xearth/ https://hewgill.com/xearth/ just to add another more meaningful reference date :D)

gsich 3y ago

Is there a recent render of the "earth as neutron star" picture?

placesalt 3y ago

I've yet to find a better source for desktop pictures/wallpapers. Cassini images are probably the prettiest, IMO. The shots of large telescopes on the ground are always a bit inspiring. And the writeups really are nice - IANAA, so it's good to know a /bit/ about what one's looking at.

thom 3y ago

It was probably a couple of years before this that I first understood how powerful the internet could be, when my dad showed me a picture taken by a satellite, and in the background you could see the stars. Here was a crummy beige PC on my dad’s desk, talking to robots in space. Wasted most of my time after that on Usenet and IRC, admittedly, but that was definitely when I caught the bug.

NelsonMinar 3y ago

APOD is great. I'd love to hear an overview of the various ways it's published and their choices on how. The ways to publish "daily interesting stuff" have changed so many times in 28 years. I read it in Feedly, using a third party RSS feed with larger images. https://acme.com/jef/apod/ https://acme.com/jef/apod/

breput 3y ago
Just a FYI - there is an official RSS feed[0] now as well. [0] https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
- NelsonMinar 3y ago
  Yes, with tiny thumbnail images; it's only good for forcing you to click into the site. Jef's feed has large images that display right in your feed reader.

frob 3y ago

For a while, I had an Automator script that would set my desktop to the APoD even night. I need to go resurrect that. It was so much better than just accepting the default all the time.

levysoft 3y ago
On Mac App Store you can find the free app Juu Background: it's very easy. https://apps.apple.com/it/app/juu-background/id1073241838 https://apps.apple.com/it/app/juu-background/id1073241838