Galaxy Zoo Talk

NGC objects - Collections

  • vrooje by vrooje admin, scientist

    Hi all,

    I started making a collection of NGC objects as an analog of the brilliant forum topic that does the same.

    I was originally doing it manually: CGZS000gux

    And then I realized that there are many objects already tagged with #NGC, and that you can create a collection based on a "tag group" -- so I've done that.

    CGZL00003q (should be attached to this post)

    It's not an exact replica, as the old thread could feature images from any source in the official collection whereas here the collected images are confined to those that are in Galaxy Zoo's database. However, the collection will auto-update anytime someone tags an image with #NGC, so we can easily add to it as we uncover more of these spectacular objects. And you could still add specimens that don't happen to be in this iteration of GZ by, say, adding a post to this discussion and linking to it from the post.

    Perhaps the most useful new feature of these collections to anyone wanting to try their own science investigations is that, if you click on the collection, you should see a button at the top right that says "Open in Tools". Clicking on that will import the collection into the Zooniverse's set of tools designed to help citizen scientists explore datasets. (I know there are good resources for how to use Tools already -- does anyone know if they are already listed somewhere I could link to?)

    Anyway, this is a bit of an experiment as I'm not that familiar with collections myself, but I'd like to start using them more. It sort of looks like there are a lot of NGCs to be added to make this a full list, so I will try to work on how to do that. In the meantime, I'm just going to gaze at this lovely collection of amazing galaxies.

    Cheers,
    -Brooke

    Posted

  • Capella05 by Capella05 moderator

    Hi Brooke,

    Do we just tag the image with #NGC or is it also okay to tag them with the full designation such as #NGC520?

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to vrooje's comment.

    Very cool Brooke! 😃

    Is there a way to add SDSS/UKIDS/DSS/HST/etc images to a GZ Talk Collection? Or must all the images be AGZ ones (i.e. be in the database of images (Subjects) which is used to present to zooites (Users) for classifying?

    One reason I ask: for me, the second image on the right is AGZ00016tb - a.k.a. NGC 4632 - but the scale is such that its full glory is somewhat hidden (not to mention that it's centered on a star-forming region well away from the nucleus!). Is it possible to add an SDSS image like this (SDSS J124232.04-000458.0)?

    enter image description here

    Posted

  • Capella05 by Capella05 moderator in response to JeanTate's comment.

    My opinion is that we stick with the images that are being classified 😃 Perhaps later we can expand it, but I think a clear distinction needs to be made between the images we classify and those posted from additional resources.

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to Capella05's comment.

    I think that's a very good idea for new lists/catalogs/Collections created (from scratch) here in GZ Talk, using nothing but existing hashtags.

    In the GZ forum, a not insignificant number of very dedicated zooites have created very nice catalogs (and similar), some of which go far beyond reliance on a zooite, having classified a galaxy discovering it's a {catalogX object}, adding a hashtag.

    For example, the NGC catalogue LIST and Messier catalogue LIST represent months of systematic work, by LankyYankee and egalaxy.

    Perhaps there's a way to recognize the efforts of zooites, over in the GZ forum, by somehow linking to the appropriate threads? Perhaps the GZ Talk Collection could include at least live links, and preferably a preamble explaining what the linked GZ forum threads/catalogs/etc are? Maybe even invite the GZ forum OP to write that; elizabeth for the UGC Catalog, for example? 😃

    Posted

  • vrooje by vrooje admin, scientist in response to Capella05's comment.

    I think only the NGC part by itself will flag the collection -- so #NGC520 wouldn't get added but #NGC 520 would.

    Posted

  • vrooje by vrooje admin, scientist in response to JeanTate's comment.

    I think that's a good idea! And as far as I know multiple discussions can be associated with a collection (I started this one by going to the collection page for CGZL00003q , scrolling down to the list of discussions and clicking the "Create a New Post" in the Science category), so the threads could each be given a separate discussion or they could be combined into one separate from this one (and the discussions can reference each other too).

    Posted

  • Capella05 by Capella05 moderator in response to vrooje's comment.

    Excellent!

    I will make sure to tag them just as #NGC 😃

    Posted

  • klmasters by klmasters scientist, admin

    That's a really great feature (the link to open a collection in Tools). I didn't know we could do that… 😃

    Posted