I thought I’d go for a slightly different top 10 this week. Zoo users are distributed all over the world – in more than 170 countries, in fact – but some places have more than others. I present, therefore, this week’s top 10 most zooite filled cities :
1. London – No surprise here given where the launch of both Zoo 1 and Zoo 2 took place
2. Manchester – Are the good folk at Jodrell Bank spending all their time on the Zoo?
3. Birmingham - Long running astronomy program the Sky at Night is based up here, so perhaps this is what they do the rest of the month.
4. New York - Now we know why the city never sleeps
5. Bristol - A sudden rush up the charts in recent weeks; I’m taking the credit as I talked there a few weeks ago. (Edit : Of course I should have mentioned the sterling efforts by Alice and Rick who gave talks there this year too.)
6. Portland - Why Oregon? I’m struggling here, because all I know about Portland is that it has a football team. According to Wikipedia, its nicknames include Stumptown.
7. Sydney - Our friends from Down Under are obviously taking a break from being unfeasibly good at sport
8. Glasgow - Being an astronomer in Glasgow must be tough with that climate. No wonder they turn to Galaxy Zoo
9. Orlando - Shouldn’t they be concentrating on building and launching spacecraft?
10. Colchester – Is this the place with the highest population of Zooites per capita? A town in Essex, Colchester was the capital of Roman Britain. They grow good oysters, too.
Any increase in Bristol since late January?
I’ve classified from all points of the compass while at sea, or traveling. Places like halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica, Australia, Celebes Sea, Singapore, Alaska, Borneo, Malaysia, Myanmar, Timor Sea, South Africa, The Gulf of Mexico, Germany, England, Portugal, Senegal, Tunisia, Indian Ocean and currently from a couple hundred miles off the coast of Angola. Oh yeah, once in a while I classify from home in Michigan, too:)
I was at KSC last weekend and feel reassured that they’re quite busy with the business of building and launching spacecraft. I was a little disappointed with the decision to go back to a rocket delivery system and abandon the totally cool orbiter paradigm, but after seeing the plans for Aries (and the fact that test launches are scheduled for next year) I think I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
You do know there is a Portland, Maine, as well?
Nice to see my hometown of Orlando has cracked the top ten!
Portland has a football team?
-Jordan
An interesting alternative top 10 – I guess Colchester at #10 is this week’s equivalent of a “Faint Fuzzy Blob” being #1 in the top 10 favourite galaxies!
A little surprised that Amsterdam didn’t make the top 10; I guess our many Dutch Zooites are spread around the Netherlands.
p.s. I suspect that what Portland has is an “American Football” team rather than the real thing!
I don’t expect there are many zooites in my rural neck of the woods – the Hautes Pyrenees, France? Toulouse is the nearest City. Cannot compete with Seismic Pirate!
Margo
Oh cool Colchester is in my neck of the woods.
Well done Essex!!!!!
No, it’s the real thing in Portland (and yes, it is Portland, Oregon). They have a guy with a chainsaw who slices through a log every time they score. Don’t ask how I know this, but I do.
Nice idea Chris.
I’m with Adam Primus,
People in the Netherlands must be spread out, I was suprised we didn’t get on the top 10.
I like to know where poeple are spread here too
My nearest city is Leiden
This is a great idea Chris
I suppose a statistics part of the website would be great! Have a look at heavens-above.com for an interesting but simple example.
There certainly are a lot of Dutch people around, so next time we might make the top ten! (keep clicking)
Idea for the next one: top 10 countries, with number of zooites from each country divided by its total population for a percentage. That should make you Dutch folks happy
Portland has a soccer team, I doubt anyone there would call it a “football” team. Not trying to pick a fight here, just chalk it up to local color (”colour” if you prefer).
Since it’s illegal to fill your own gas (petrol) tank in Oregon, but wifi is ubiquitous, maybe they zoo while sitting in their cars fueling up?
Interesting top 10.
Thank you Chris for the interesting statistics. Isn’t this a British ” invasion ” (or motivation, really ! ) ?
JKHC.
Ah well where I live at people are only concerned about their pockets and how high the bills are…they don’t seem to go out of their boxes too often. Too bad, it’s a wonderful world they’re missing.
I am 58,very much interested in AstroPhysics.I am BSc with Physics but had to join Accounts/Finance.I struggle like fish in sand.I was amateur astronomer in Mumbai,India during1976-80.Now I lost contacts.I would like to be active now in Astronomy.I need to refresh my skills and renew my studies in star/galaxy glazing.Any help ?
mp rao
Been Zooin from the Great NorthWest (Seattle, WA) for a couple years now, and love it!
~Joe
Passing the 6 months of winter in Buffalo, New York Zooing. If the population decline here keeps up, we could make the top 10 on a percentage basis any day now.
I was thinking of a countries one too.. Chris?
Hi, I’m in Spain, Mollina, Malaga in beautiful Andalucia to be precise although my heart is still in England.
Oh, I originally came from Birmingham, UK so good to see my home town at number 3.
I’ve only been zooing for several months and I enjoy it very much.Lately however, I seem to be re-clasifying the same galaxies ? I’m located in Ogden,Utah,USA. Is this normal or am I being punish? I tried to join in the forum to get info, but it rejected my password, which is the same one I,ve always used for login. I’d appreciate some feedback. I dont have a website, however so it but it would have to be by e-mail. Thanks
Chicago or LA for me.
Hi Frank, you have to register for the forum separately at the moment
Hello from Canada!
Nice to see Bristol is in the top 5! Alice has certainly helped raise the profile of GZ hereabouts-
I wasn’t aware Zookeeper Chris had given a talk here recently…Whatever. Maybe it’s the invigorating sea air we have here? The cider? Perhaps because we have soccer teams that are not so hot, people prefer GZing rather than going to see a match.
When I’m not watching the Northern Lights here in Alaska, I’m avoiding reading on Galaxy Zoo
Hello, I am zooing from the world-famous city of Oss in the Netherlands.
Being retired, there is plenty of time to classify; and yes like Portland, Oss also has a soccer team.
greetz
I am surprised that there aren’t more American Zooites.
Well I see Ottawa, Ontario, Canada does not make the list? ;-( But I’ll keep on clicking to make up for the hight numbers.
Wow, Sydney is #7? Glad to see I’m not the only zooite this neck of the woods…
I’m slightly surprised that there weren’t very many American cities on here. Still, glad to see that New York and Portland made the list.
I’m surprised to see Atherton in North Queensland didn’t rate a mention (said with tongue planted firmly in cheek).
Greetings from Tasmania in Australia. Happy Easter to all.
I didn´t expect Sao Paulo city (Brazil) appear on the top list, but we´re here also, a little contribution for the project, a big pleasure to me
I just love it. xoxo
Portland Oregon has a football team? I don’t think so. At least not a professional one I’ve heard of in the years I’ve lived here.
Portland is called ‘Stumptown’ becuase of all the stumps that were left around when the forrests were chopped down to build the city in the 19th Century. Those stumps are now gone.
Oh, football=soccer, I get it. Okay, then Portland DOES have a football team, though I thought by convention it would be spelled ‘futbol’
i’m from snake gully australia. how do i get a look in matey?
Hi to all. I have a sky out side that people would die for!! A1030 high right right over us has been there for a few days with 2 to 3 more days to go.
From Christchurch, New Zealand
Greetings to all from Bakersfield, California at the edge of the Mojave Desert, where the oil-well pumps run 24 hrs a day, citrus orchards are blooming across the San Joaquin Valley, and the East Pacific Plate grinds past the North American Plate at the San Andreas Fault (we’re due for the next really big one in the near future). I’ll bet Snake Gulley, Australia looks alot like the Bakersfield area!
I hope Galaxy Zoo is as meaningful to you all, as it is to me! Have fun!
I live in Wichita, Kansas and own a bit of farmland in South east Kansas with a night sky everyone else would envy. Anyone else from the American Midwest claiming to be a Zooite?
Greetings everyone, I zoo from Mexico City.. any more Mexicans around?
Not surprised not to be in the top ten: I think I am the only one Zoo user in Medea (ITA) between 898 inhabitants. But I will be surprised if in NY there were 10,000.
Any chance we’ll get the Top Ten with countries? And maybe some percent/number of users/classified galaxies, so we could see how big is the difference between each place? It’d be cool!
Hello from Granollers, near Barcelona (Spain). I think is most important quality than quantity in Galaxyzoo. Don’t be in a hurry! Have fun!
Does anybody else classify from the heart of the Cambridgeshire fens?
I am surprised that Merseyside did not make the running, as I am sure there are many more Zoolies from the area who click away into the early hours, but it is good to see how widespread and global the interest has become.
Best wishes to all involved and keep up the good work
Portland’s one of the most wired cities in America. We show up in Google Trends all the time, too, as one of the cities doing the most searches.