Starship Asterisk*

Sweet image! Nice job combining the two Vermeers and also very nice touches in the additions. Of course the pixellation was also a lot of cool work! Thanks for clearing up the mystery of the plot before I posted my silly guess. Vermeer has been accused of having used a camera obscura to assist with some paintings. Perhaps he had a special camera obscura that could pull in an image onto his wall from hundreds of years in the future!

I too, am deeply grateful for all of the work that the curators have put into this great and enjoyable science resource. Happy birthday!

Thank you! APOD was on my oldest recorded https://web.archive.org/web/19961122173 ... izona.edu/ home page by November 1996. I've enjoyed your work very much.

Thank you to the APOD Staff who work to keep science fun, informative and interesting. I've followed you for many years and hope to do so for many more. Ad Astra!

Jerry looks like he is looking at the globe...but Bob looks like he is looking out the window....

Awesome pic...

Yay!! APOD!!!

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Happy Birthday APOD.

This was one of the first websites we found when we first got the internet.

Thank you so much for the work you have put into this site.

Guest wrote:

Anon wrote:Probably a silly question. Does anyone know what the plot on the wall (under the date) represents?

That plot represents the time history of the first gamma ray burst ever observed (APOD from July 2, 2000).

The image to the right (on the right edge) is actually photo of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory during deployment by the Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1991 (APOD from April 8, 2000).

Both Nemiroff and Bonnell have long had a research interest in gamma ray bursts. Both were heavily involved in the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory mission.

Happy Birthday to APOD!

And for completeness (and in case it hasn't already been mentioned) the picture on the cupboard door in today's APOD, comes from the first ever APOD in 1995:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap950616.html

Thanks APOD for your important work.
Happy day

Wow, you are ageing well Robert and Jerry as you look no older than you did in the APOD of June 16, 1996. Of course that's when viewing the non-pixelated version that is brought up when moving a cursor over the current pixelated image when online .

Looking forward to many more APODs. .

Craine wrote:Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear APOOOOOODDD!!
Happy Birthday to you!

Woohoo! Yay! Where is the cake?

I made a cake a few years back. It's still fresh by cosmic standards. Have a slice.

Thank you so much for the creation of APOD! Thanks to the creativity and execution of two very brilliant men, I've had the pleasure and the wonder of exploring the Galaxy in the comfort of my own home. Not one of the ancients was so blessed.

I think Vermeer would have like the composite of his two paintings. There's a heightened energy generated by these two scientists as if they were collaborating on some project or discovery. Wonderful concept, splendid execution.