A couple of months ago, the editors at Astronomy decided to ask our Online Publishing staff to create an Online Reader Gallery, a place where we can showcase the great images astrophotographers share with us daily. We're happy to share that the Gallery is open!
This new area of Astronomy.com allows timely images to appear nearly immediately. This will prove especially valuable to observers and imagers who follow transitory solar system objects like comet Lulin (C 2007/N3) or rapidly changing phenomena like supernovae.
Our Online Reader Gallery also allows us to archive images. In fact, once an image is in the Online Reader Gallery, it’s there permanently. Users can search by subject, imager, or even by specific object. If you click on an image, you’ll get to see a larger version. There’s also a “slide show” option that lets you scan a whole subject area with just one click.
Anyone can browse the gallery, but registration is required to leave comments or submit an image. Registration is free and easy. You can also navigate to this page from Astronomy.com’s home page by clicking “Online Reader Gallery” under the “Community” menu near the top of the page.
I’d like to thank all the astroimagers who submitted their work — like Jim Lafferty's shot of NGC 2237 above — during our 2-week test period. Your comments helped us make the site even better. Internally, we couldn’t have launched the site without the great work of Astronomy.com Online Editor Matt Quandt and Online Publishing guru Alex Gaudynski.