The long wait is finally over, and anyone visiting the main Galaxy Zoo page will now see a brand new, sparkling Zoo 2 site. The results from the beta site are stunningly good, and we are sure that Zoo 2 will produce as much science – and as many surprises – as the original Galaxy Zoo did.
Of course, we need your help, so please do log on to the site and get classifying. Along the way you’ll notice a few new features; for starters, the images are hosted on our brand new server system at Amazon web services, so you should be able to classify as quickly as you like without us slowing you down. For the first time in Zoo 2, ‘My Galaxies’ works so you’ll be able to revisit galaxies gone by and find new information about old favourites. And speaking of favourites, you’ll be able to select and view your own favourite galaxies as you go.With that, I’ll say thank you to the team who put Zoo 2 together, particularly Arfon, and go and classify some galaxies.
P.S. The site’s up 90 minutes early, so if it’s before midnight GMT then don’t tell anyone 
.
Rah!
Praise the Skys !
I’ve just taken my first shots at classifying and have a couple of immediate “wants” (no inverse view function and no crosshairs).
Where do I send my pleadings on such matters.
diaswa – noted!
We’ll implement both in time – we’re trying to measure the effect of changing such things this time.
Chris
Congratulations to all on the launch of Zoo 2 … and awwwaaaayyyy we go!!! This is very exciting, a whole new ground floor ooportunity.
This will sound selfish – but here it is anyway – I had a different login id and password during Beta Testing of Zoo 2- this id and password seem to be gone now and the Zoo 1 id and password seem to be the only ones that are active. Is there a way to get the galaxies I classified in Beta Testing, into “My Galaxies” on Zoo2? If not, no big deal.
Hi Rob
The answer is yes, but not yet – we’ll be merging the beta test results with these and then you’ll be able to see all of those galaxies too. My Galaxies is running in restricted mode – you can only see your ‘favourites’ for now to help us through the peak in the next few days.
Chris
Will you make an iPhone app? Are you considering this?
So exciting!
Great! Congratulations with GZ2.
Up up and away!
Hello everyone…..
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
Well done everyone involved with the Zoo2 launch!!!
Happy classifying
I’m sorry to say, but it’s absolutely useless. Most of the images don’t load anymore, and it’s far too slow to do anything (takes almost 10 seconds to go onto the next stage/image, compared to a fraction of a second on the old one, which is ridiculous).
On the old GZ, I could accurately classify about an image a second. It’s taking me over 2 minutes to try and navigate through the menus on GZ2.
I’d strongly suggest that you make the old style basic UI available again. Until it’s back, I’ll be doing no more classifying.
“Web 2.0″ design features have ruined so many websites. Don’t let this become yet another victim.
Is there any new data, or are these the same galaxies as in GZ1? If so, when will new data come?
Hello ARJ
I’m sorry that you don’t like the new Galaxy Zoo. Our old site asked only one question: ‘Is the galaxy spiral or elliptical?’ With Galaxy Zoo 2 we’re asking more questions about the galaxies so we can do more science.
I understand that it must be frustrating that the site is slow today but we’re currently extremely busy being featured on the front page of the BBC and many other media outlets. I can assure you that once the peak of traffic has died off you’ll find the site nice and responsive again.
Please bear with us – we’re doing our best!
Cheers
Arfon
ARJ – the problem and slowness compared with GZ1 is certainly not because the design of the site is worse. The GZ2 site is actually much, much better than the GZ1 site. The problem is the huge number of people accessing the site at specific times.
Under similar conditions, GZ1 completely crashed when it was launched! We tried to prepare better for GZ2, and we have mostly succeeded, the site is slow at peak times, but most people are managing to use it. The site performance will rapidly improve as we work to optimise our setup and as the usage peaks smooth out.
The GZ2 site is a lot more demanding, on both our servers and your mind, as we ask for more details. There’s a very good reason we’re asking more questions – to do science. There is no point us sticking with the same simple format forever. We want to generate new data to fuel new scientific discoveries.
At last it’s here! Well done to the design team and here’s hoping it will entice back former zooites who couldn’t bear the waiting…
This is great! I love the fact that the average backyard star gazer can be involved with something so exciting and actually happening at this very moment! Got the web site from my “Universe Today” newsletter.
An iPhone app would be a nice addition. I imagine it would be pretty simple to implement.
GO Galaxy ZOO
My activation code has worked, but my user name is not being recognised no matter what I do. Please help.
marie26
Congratulations on an excellent site.
It’s very exciting to be able to contribute a little bit to expanding our knowledge.
Can’t wait for traffic to come off peak so I can see my favourite galaxies. I thought one of them had some more of that blue stuff!!!
Keep up the good work
I think we can classify more accurately by having the SDSS data easily available. Also being able to zoom and invert and navigate makes for more accurate classifications.
The way Zoo 2 is set up it is somewhat of an enormous pain in the neck to obtain the object ID. I had to bookmark http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/setEq.asp?ra=177.61731893&dec=4.69492514 to do it, and it is tedious to enter the RA & Declination.
I do not understand why you want to hobble us by limiting access to all this great data you have. I do not see any point in making us classify based on just one view of an object without easy access to the Explore page, etc.
Part of the joy of GZ1 was the ease with which this additional information could be accessed. So I think you have removed a large part of the fun in the way you set up GZ2.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love you guys, but really what is the point in making it harder to get an object ID, especially if we are still expected to post and discuss objects on the Forum. The Forum is going to have a lot of duplicate posts if we cannot easily ID objects and search to see if they were previously posted in the Forum.
I love the way Waveney set up the merger site and the irregular site so that every image has a link to the Explore and Navigate pages, and a built in button to search the forum. I think GZ2 should be modified to at least give an object ID and preferably to incorporate the functionality that Waveney put into the irregular and merger sites.
Please don’t make me keep entering RA/Dec for every image I want a closer look at.
Dang! I just went to Zoo 2 again and see that you have changed it in a way that prevents us from even getting the RA/Dec info by right clicking the images. So how are we supposed to know if an object has been posted in the forum now?
The most amazin application to hit the iNternet.
Well done GZ team.
me got iphone not trying 2 brag or anything but me got the iphone me got the iphone me got the iphone this wed site ROCKS BIG TIME g2g dinners ready x x x x x x x
lizardly has an excellent point.
Dave
WOOOOOOOOOW!! I cannot wait im stayin up all night!!
Only jokin you muppets
Congratulations on this truly trailblazing site. Experimental science meets crowdsourcing! Thanks for reinvigorating my passion for astronomy.
I’m so excited! Time to start classifying! I think an iphone app is a good idea.
Congratulations!It is amazing! I am very hapy to take part on it!
Yaaay!
And I love the “Add to favorites” button — or at least, I’m sure I will once My Galaxies is back up. It was a bit frustrating having to click through scads of identical elliptical to find that Really Pretty One I wanted to show someone or post to the forum.
The correspondent heard about this Zoo from a personage on the BBC. Its better than our Zoo on the ground. Is the BBC located somewhere in the stratosphere?
Anyway, I registered and perused the “elements.”
It looks like lots of fun, and my first impression was one of hilarity.
I am a graphic artist and the images are lovely. Are they for real/reel?
Continued success with this humongous project.
Greetings from the Other Side
I am addicted to classifying galaxies!
One thing I would love to see though is an option to tag a galaxy as particularly interesting or beautiful, and then an option to see the best of the bunch. Some of the ones I have seen are stunning and deserve to be seen by many!