Galaxy Zoo Talk

A little rambling

  • Aldronaigh by Aldronaigh

    Hi there

    after using galaxyzoo for a while I'd like to ramble a bit about the classification methods.

    Disclaimer: I an not an astronomer but I built classification systems myself in the past for more than 25 years.

    A lot of times I get pictures where it is obvious that they have:

    • clumps
    • spirals (although I am not able to say how many or how tight they are wound)
    • some sort of debris/merger
    • etc.

    if I then go on to classify the galaxy, none of the questions come up while some pictures ago these questions came up with no hint of said features.
    This is quite annoying...at least to me.

    A lot of times you can only see certain features if you use the invert option or which is the case with my computer, you tilt the screen a bit. Expecially if it comes to the question of clumps this is very handy. But then you can't answer the questions in a correct way because the features don't fit any of the answers.
    Btw.: an undo feature would be nice. Because sometimes the site seems to be unresponsive and goes on to next question because I pressed the mouse button (in my case a touchpad) already twice.

    Sometimes I get the question if I would like to take part in a feedback questionaire, But I can't seem to go to the said site/form.
    I have disabled adblockers, https, noscript, allow popups for this site etc. but it doesn't seem to work...

    Otherwise I have a lot of fun with the site.

    Aldronaigh

    Posted

  • BioMiep by BioMiep

    I noticed that too. You can't correctly classify at least 10% of them, even if you wanted to. The 'don't know how many arms' button should always be there in my opinion. Plus the menu is different every time so you can't just go on autopilot, more or less hitting the buttons blind. I'm pretty sure people would classify 3 times faster if all buttons were always there and always in the same place. And with more enjoyment i should add. I have clump fatigue. Not even joking. Trying to push myself past them but.. aaaghh!! I'm not getting the questionaire either btw. Running every blocker in the known universe as well. We should just have a link we can click somewhere. "Take this weeks questionaire here!" or something.

    Posted

  • 22CometGirl22 by 22CometGirl22

    Thanx 4 ur ramble. I am brand new to this site and found it through watching a lecture from Dr. Thaller to the Library of congress. She mentioned it in passing. Long story short, I am hookwinkled.. I am working on figuring out things myself. But I do find it rather self explanatory. That is.. when the photos are clear enough. Which often times they are not. I just do my best to answer to the best of my abilities.

    Posted

  • BioMiep by BioMiep

    Yes, and some kind of undo or back button would be really nice. So much time wasted classifying things 2 3 times before getting it right.

    Posted

  • Where_is_i by Where_is_i

    I contemplated starting a thread for this the other day. I have found the same thing with unknown spiral arms and have found the clump option mostly only comes up when there are a few foreground stars around the object. I wasn't even aware of the survey questionaire and the only pop up blockers i have activated are the generic Firefox ones. I also have a few issues with lag (bad internet in the bush) so the undo button could be handy.

    Posted

  • jeffreyhrwtz by jeffreyhrwtz

    I think after time, and patience, you will get the idea what the astronomy team is looking for, and don't stress too much on the ambiguous images. Astronomy is one of the few fields where "citizens", working a few hours a week, can make a significant impact in the field. If we don't get it perfect the first time, we're reminded by the science team its really not a problem; others will get a chance to add their observations and a point list emerges. I recommend reading APOD regularly to keep up with what's topical today with Nasa and other space agencies, the hyper-links are excellent tutorials for understanding the terminology and advances that have been made!

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  • Where_is_i by Where_is_i

    What i'm trying to say and possibly the others is if you are going to do something, do it right the first time. I understand it doesn't have to be perfect, Just would be good to do it to the best of our ability. Don't get me wrong, I love Galaxy Zoo and i find it fantastic and think more things should be done this way (people give a bit of their time to help - where otherwise it could cost a LOT of money to pay people to do this) . The rush of the next unseen image (could be something never seen or heard of before), Better than any drug haha.

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  • Budgieye by Budgieye moderator

    It should be a scientist answering this. But I will try.

    Why are some of the question decision trees different? Several projects are running at the same time. Some projects compare with previous projects several years ago. The scientist want to directly compare the two studies, so the same questions are asked, even thought the telescopic view is now better .see decision trees in 1.3 Galaxy Classification and formation and evolution https://talk.galaxyzoo.org/#/boards/BGZ0000001/discussions/DGZ0000wrb?page=1&comment_id=53d8b71c0d43f776b0001074

    enter image description here



    Almost none of the galaxies we are seeing fits my understanding of clumpy. I thought that clumpy was a term for partly formed galaxies, seen by Hubble at distances of redshift of one or more, so they were forming a long time ago. Modern galaxies might end up with starforming areas, but that is not my idea of clumpy.

    enter image description here

    A brief history of clumpy galaxies http://blog.galaxyzoo.org/2010/05/25/a-brief-history-of-clumpy-galaxies/

    1.9 Irregular and clumpy galaxies, low surface brightness LSB http://talk.galaxyzoo.org/#/boards/BGZ0000001/discussions/DGZ0000wrb?page=1&comment_id=53d8b7c00d43f776b000107a



    For example,when I first started, I worried that I was overlooking many spiral galaxies because they were getting classified as smooth. But corrections can be applied with better algorithms.

    Galaxy Zoo is ten years old. I'm sure the researchers will get the Universe sorted out soon.

    Posted