• In a galaxy far far away …
• Where no man has gone before …
• Each day a different image or photograph of our universe …

These are a few famous line which bring forth to mind specific things. The last one is well known among astronomers and astrophotographers as the title line of the webpage Astronomy Picture of the Day, and the famous acronym APOD. The title line is simple and self-explanatory.  When an astrophotographer’s image appears on this webpage, congratulatory messages are sent to the particular astrophotographer. It does not matter how seasoned or already famous the astrophotographer is, or how many of his photographs have already graced APOD before. Such is the popularity of the website: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/

The first ‘Astronomy Picture of the Day’ appeared on June 16^th 1995, and has continued with one APOD each day, that’s more than 6000 photographs till today. Last year APOD reached one million hits per day. The APOD archive is one of the largest collections of annotated astronomical images on the internet. It is disseminated in 16 languages. Robert Nemiroff and Jerry T. Bonnell co-founded and together run the popular Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) website. Robert Nemiroff is a professor of physics at Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan and Jerry Bonnell is a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Robert Nemiroff is coming to India and is talking at the Amateur Astronomers Association Delhi on Sunday 12^th February 2012. His talk is titled “Best short Astronomy Videos on APOD"



What:    “Best Short Astronomy Videos”
When:    Sunday, February 12th 2012, 12 pm
Where:    Nehru Planetarium, New Delhi

Robert J. Nemiroff is an astrophysicist at the Michigan Technological University and NASA Goddard. His research interests in­clude the investigation of gamma-ray bursts, gravitational lensing, terrestrial gamma flashes, cosmology, the generation and use of the digits of irrational numbers. He’s placed video lectures from his classes “Introductory Astronomy” and “Extraordinary Concepts in Physics” on iTunes and elsewhere on the Internet for free. Robert’s personal website can be viewed here: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/rjn.html

On the occasion of Nemiroff’s Lecture at the AAAD, we would like to collect and present some of the best pictures taken by astrophotographers in India, before the APOD editor. All of you are invited to send in your images to us to be included in the presentation. Keep in mind the nature of APOD pictures - unusual, spectacular and explaining or depicting some aspect of astronomy, science, astronomical event, spectacular star trails, observatories etc. Don't forget that images need not necessarily be of the sky only. You are welcome to send this link to others, who you may think would have images to submit. The submission is not restricted to amateur astronomers only. May we request professional astronomers also to submit an unusual photo or two of their work place, observing place, actual work …

Submission guidelines:

1. Image submitted should have Indian connection.

2. Please submit images with the larger pixel size of 1000 px or more.

3. The images should be unmarked, it is assured that we will watermark the pictures with credit, as provided with the image in an uniform manner.

4. Please write a 50-100 word caption with the image submitted, describing the image.

5. Any number of images can be submitted by one person. Images can be submitted on behalf of others too, when mentioning the name of the original photographer.

6. Images WILL be selected based on quality and content of the image.

7. The last date of submission is 5^th of February 2012.

Your images can be submitted here.

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Explanation: Welcome to the quindecennial year of the Astronomy Picture of the Day! Perhaps a source of web consistency for some, APOD is still here. As during each of the 15 years of selecting images, writing text, and editing the APOD web pages, the occasionally industrious Robert Nemiroff (left) and frequently persistent Jerry Bonnell (right) are pictured above plotting to highlight yet another unsuspecting image of our cosmos. Although the above image may appear similar to the whimsical Vermeer composite that ran on APOD's fifth anniversary, a perceptive eye might catch that this year it has been digitally re-pixelated using many of the over 5,000 APOD images that have appeared over APOD's tenure. (Can you find any notable APOD images?) Once again, we at APOD would like to offer a sincere thank you to our readership for continued interest, support, and many gracious communications.