Attention cloud hunters! With a lot of input and assistance from laihro, waveney, and ZookeeperKevin, I am pleased to announce a new specialized galaxy hunt, targeted at galaxies with active nuclei to pull out the ones with bright clouds in an organized way. At
http://wavwebs.com/GZ/voorwerpje/Hunt.cgi
you can go through SDSS images of known AGN and help us tell which ones are most likely to have the kind of gigantic ionized-gas clouds which can tell us about the history of the active nucleus and its surroundings. First you’ll see an introduction to why the problem is interesting, and offering some examples of what we’re looking for and some kinds of imposters we want to weed out. You can use existing logins from the merger and irregular classification projects if you have one – otherwise, feel free to join in. The more the merrier – or at the very least, the more, the faster and more statistically robust. And keep visiting – we’ll be augmenting the galaxy list with more AGN that are known but don’t have SDSS spectra, but it will take a little more time to get those identifications fed into the list.
Whence the web name? These clouds have a lot in common with Hanny’s Voorwerp, but are much smaller – so we go with the Dutch diminutive form “voorwerpje”. We do know of more than one, so “voorwerpjes” would also make sense.
Haha, voorwerpjes!
Happy hunting! 
WAHEY!!!!!
Cool!
Cool!
Very very cool- and how do your pronounce voorwerpje
?
I do not understand what I supposed to look for. Is part of a galaxy somewhat colored. Interested but confused.
Jim – We’re looking for clouds of gas in these galaxies, which show up as oddly-colored blobs. Unlike the bluish tint you often see in spiral arms, they may show up as a very pure blue, or green, or even violet. On the web page for the hint, there are some examples that show what to look for, and some of the kinds of things that don’t count.
Great stuff, looking forward to helping out with this one
I tried previously to register for this hunt but was unable to log in using a new un and pw. Having lost track of my pw I tried unsuccessfully to re-register with another one, but every time I try to register I just get a message informing me that I’m not registered.
If you don’t think I would make a valuable contributer to this thread I really don’t understand why you sent me an email inviting me to participate in it.
Sincerely
Spiralmania
Spiralmania, if you send me a PM with your user name (I know it is not spiralmania) I can set your password for you. To logon with a new password and username click on REGISTER not Login.
Click … Click … Click …
Hey Bill!
You were very clear and helpful and I click every chance I get. Big thanks.
Pronounciation: VORE-WEHRP-YUH
Ref. difficulty with log-on
I am registered as dave.3 with G.Z. but had to change to dave3 for this one as full stop not accepted.
Hope this helps the confused
dave
man dis webs is mob gud coze
i like the galaxy shizo mob.
too mob kul
to every one try this webs you spot.