Top Picks

If I remember correctly, it's based on what IOTD Submitters and Reviewers nominate for IOTD.

Sorry, I can't figure out how to add a new Topic, so I found the closest related section.   I had a question relating to my latest image on the Tadpole nebula.   Yesterday morning it was marked as a Top Pick, but 24 hours later, it's no longer a Top Pick.  Has anyone else ever a Top Pick taken away?  I was happy yesterday, but a little sad to see it gone today.    Any way to find out why it was taken away?

Chuck's Astrophotography:
Sorry, I can't figure out how to add a new Topic, so I found the closest related section.   I had a question relating to my latest image on the Tadpole nebula.   Yesterday morning it was marked as a Top Pick, but 24 hours later, it's no longer a Top Pick.  Has anyone else ever a Top Pick taken away?  I was happy yesterday, but a little sad to see it gone today.    Any way to find out why it was taken away?

A submitter probably selected it but changed their mind later. That's the only guess I have.

--Ethan

Yes, I thought of the possibility that they may have changed their mind, but was hoping for some other explanation.  Thanks for the reply.

Thank you for getting back with me.   You're right, I am happier already!.

Ruben, this has been discussed ad-nauseam. Astrophotographs cannot be sorted on an absolute scale, so all Top Picks and IOTDs will always be subjective. All we can do is try to highlight some interesting images and have some fun while doing it. There will always be contrasting opinions on every image, because a preference for an image is exactly that: an opinion. Let us just accept that it's an imperfect system, and we will all feel better for it.

Salvatore Iovene:
I will have to fix this because I get too many emails about the topic :-)

Fixed today.

Chuck's Astrophotography:

Salvatore Iovene:

Salvatore Iovene:
I will have to fix this because I get too many emails about the topic :-)

Fixed today.

Thank you for addressing this. 

Chuck looks very smiley!

Hi Carole,

A few days ago I raised that question and I was clear about the procedure. As such, the situation i reported here was about a new image (not a revision).

But back to the main question, from my point of view why should we accept an imperfect system when it has the capacity to improve? This is an issue that should be considered.

I think that the criteria for choosing Top Picks should be rigorously discussed by more experienced members and passed on to less experienced decision-makers (for example, why a simple 1" photograph of the sky is selected while an image of a distant and rarely seen galaxy, with a large telescope, is never chosen?).

Good morning to all members! I would like to suggest that we discuss some parameters for choosing the" images of the day "by the members of the group, why not create a topic about it? Would be interesting!
I understand that the choice has many subjective criteria, among them opinions and votes (likes) of the members. But it would be convenient to add in addition to the votes of the members in the mural images, the degree of difficulty in catching certain very faint objects and their too difficult processing in an attempt to highlight their details.
What do you think about this?

Another reason why an image was picked as Top Picks a year ago while an improved version isn't:  the quality of other images.  The overall quality of images on Astrobin actually fluctuate.  It was very clear to me last year when I was a reviewer/judge.  I remember there was a period of time last year when the averaged quality drop consistently, for not just weeks, but a couple of months.  It could be caused by the global weather in one hemisphere: people just didn't have chances to image for a good while.  There were short periods of time when good pictures just burst.  Because of this quality fluctuation, one image picked a while ago doesn't imply it (or its improved version) to be picked again.  The Top Picks (and also the IOTD) is a relative term, only meant to be compared with images submitted within roughly a week from each other, not over long time scales of months or a year.

And remember, we are not machines. We have subjective opinions and our opinions are different from each other, so are the IOTD staff.

Most of as are not scientists; we are photographers, with our subject being the night sky. Thus things like aesthetics, composition, amount of post-processing and respect to our subject, comes into play when we judge an image. As being humans we judge relatively to other images we, as (imperfect) individuals, consider as good images. That's why the term top quality has not that much meaning for us. If we were scientists, top quality may mean high SNR or low FWHM, but then, the only top quality images under these measures are from professional observatories or from space missions. And even then, aesthetics is important. Organizations like NASA (or others) takes aesthetics into account when publishing their results to the general public.