Date    Top Pick   Title                          Comment(s)
___________________________________________________________________  

Jan 01  The Largest Rock Known      Picked for text  
Jan 02  Mercury: A Cratered Inferno
Jan 03  Orion's Horsehead Nebula    Malin wide angle
Jan 04  Galaxies Cluster Toward the Great Attractor 
Jan 05  Earth's Richat Structure
Jan 06  M2-9: Wings of a Butterfly Nebula
Jan 07  The Mysterious Cone Nebula  
Jan 08  Cone Nebula Close-Up        
Jan 09  Blue Flash                  Use text, title from ap000507 (Green Flash)
Jan 10  Brown Sun Bubbling          
Jan 11  Great Orion Neb (Gendler)   wow. beats 7,000 stars and milkyway
Jan 12  The Wind on Mars            Use Mars dunes later
Jan 13  Lunokhod 1: Moon Robot      Good text!
Jan 14  M57: The Ring Nebula         
Jan 15  The Sun Also Rises
Jan 16  Bubbling Cauldron of NGC 3079
Jan 17  NGC 1818: A Young Globular Cluster
Jan 18  Saturn, Rings, and Two Moons
Jan 19  Telescope with Lightning    
Jan 20  Callisto Full Face          Beats Venus Arachnoids
Jan 21  Our Dusty Universe          Beats Mira; Volcano & Aurora
Jan 22  Neutron Bounce Quantized in Earth Gravity  
Jan 23  Saturnian Aurora            
Jan 24  Eskimo Nebula from Hubble   
Jan 25  A Lunar Eclipse in Three Exposures  Beats Falling Stardust
Jan 26  Venus' Once Molten Surface  
Jan 27  Hubble Deep Field           Replaces Earthrise (->Dec25)
Jan 28  CMB Dipole: Speeding Through the Universe 
Jan 29  An Airplane in Front of the Sun
Jan 30  Moonrise Over Seattle       Beats Milky Way in Infrared
Jan 31  Welcome to the Planet Earth

Feb 01  Abell 2218: ... cluster lens
Feb 02  All-Sky Panorama            
Feb 03  Colorful Clouds Of Carina   beats m100
Feb 04  Jupiter's Brain             
Feb 05  The Ant Nebula              beats jupiter giant storms
Feb 06  Message from Earth
Feb 07  coronal hole                beats m103 open cluster
Feb 08  Happy Birthday Jules Verne  
Feb 09  Saturn the Giant            Topical
Feb 10  Aurora Astern               
Feb 11  Reflection Neb. M78         beats space walz, sputnick
Feb 12  Tales of Hale-Bopp          New
Feb 13  Lord of the Rings           wow.
Feb 14  Rosette Neb (Gendler)       beats "dark sky bright sun" for date
Feb 15  NGC 2244: A Star Cluster    
Feb 15  Rosette Nebula in H, O & S
Feb 16  Cosmic IR Background        replaces mediocre pics
Feb 17  A Wind From the Sun         clear choice
Feb 19  Shuttle Plume Shadow        beats Czech Fireball
Feb 20  Astro I in Orbit            mediocre text
Feb 21  Sonic Boom                  include "bow shock" in text?
Feb 22  Gamma Ray Sky               gro heritage?  alternate "purple color" image?
Feb 23  Saturn at the Lunar Limb    Saturn Occultation here?
Feb 24  Lyman Alpha Forest          weird. good text (beat IR Horsehead?)
Feb 25  Crescent Europa             beat High Energy Fleet ...
Feb 26  Sungrazer                   beat garradd all-sky, mars sanddunes
Feb 27  Pleiades Star Cluster       
Feb 28  ESO 184-G82: SupernovaGrb   include graphic box?
Feb 29  Julius Caesar Leap day?     centurial year 2000 (Book title: 366 days?)

Mar 01  Galaxy Dwingeloo 1 Emerges  Place after Lyman Alpha forest?
Mar 02  Rumors of a Strange UniverseMight need image of SN1999D, updated text
Mar 03  The Regolith of Asteroid Eros  
Mar 04  Ganymede Mosaic
Mar 05  The Pipe Dark Nebula        Beats Earth in True Color
Mar 06  Hubble Floats Free          Beats M27: The Dumbbell Nebula
Mar 07  Apollo 12 Visits Surveyor 3 
Mar 08  Columbia Dawn
Mar 09  Sirius: Brightest Star      New           
Mar 10  A Southern Sky View         
Mar 11  Plains and Ridges on Europa
Mar 12  Cracks and Ridges on Europa 3 similar ones follow with better color pics?!
Mar 13  M27: The Dumbbell Nebula    Newly restored
Mar 14  A GRB 000301C Symphony      Good text
Mar 15  Happy Face Crater on Mars
Mar 16  Asteroids in the Distance   Good text
Mar 17  Comet Hale-Bopp Over Val    
Mar 18  Interstellar Dust-Bunnies   
Mar 19  Breaking Distant Light      
Mar 20  Antares and Rho Ophiuchi    
Mar 21  Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 2903
Mar 22  A Spherule from Outer Space
Mar 23  A Chamaeleon Sky 
Mar 24  The Cat's Eye Nebula 
Mar 25  The Crab Nebula from VLT    
Mar 26  The Pulsar Powered Crab     cosmic crustacean
Mar 27  A Radio Vista of Cygnus     good radio image!
Mar 28  The Coma Cluster of Galaxies
Mar 29  Fullerenes as Miniature     Good text
Mar 30  Supernova Star Field        sub'd
Mar 31  The Mysterious Rings 1987A

Apr 01  Green Cheese Moon           april fools day ...
Apr 02  Dark Sky Bright Sun         picked up from Feb.
Apr 03  Radio Sky                   all sky at 408 MHz
Apr 04  Superwind Cigar Galaxy      beats out merc astronauts
Apr 05  Jet from Galaxy M87              beats out X-ray pleiades
Apr 06  An Anomalous SETI Signal    Good text; beats Venus Unveiled
Apr 07  Tails of Comet Hyakutake    jnew
Apr 08  Compton Observatory         the really great obs. Replace w/ap000116 ?
Apr 09  Snake Nebula                
Apr 10  M51 Whirlpool Galaxy        wow. 
Apr 11  Canaries Sky                
Apr 12  Stars From Eagle's EGGs     the one
Apr 13  Galaxy is not A Comet       M31+Ikeya-Zhang
Apr 14  Ray of Dark Cloud Shadow    New
Apr 15  Pluto in True Color         but pluto isn't brown! says durda (ruddy,reddish)
Apr 16  Pluto: New Horizons         use text from ap960212.html
Apr 17  Blue Marble 2000            big blue one + moon
Apr 18  NGC 2266: Old Cluster in ...beats out dewey vdh
Apr 19  Old Moon in New Moon's Arms text
Apr 20  Io: Moon Over Jupiter       good one 
Apr 21  Center of Centaurus A       oh yes
Apr 22  Cen A, Active Galaxy        centaurus a in x-rays (cxc)
Apr 23  The Newly Expanded ISS      change title?  beats cluster bends
Apr 24  The Trifid Nebula from AAO  also liked barsoom text/frothy milky way
Apr 25  Southern Cross in Mauna Loa aloha
Apr 26  NGC 2440: Cocoon of a New WD
Apr 27  Ski Enceladus               Newly added
Apr 28  Betelgeuse                  Newly added.  Mira better?
Apr 29  Resolving Mira              New
Apr 30  The Holographic Principle   > 10^65 bits  

May 01  In the Center Omega Nebula
May 02  Arp 188 Tadpole's Tidal TailNew HST ACS picture
May 03  Thackeray's Globules
May 04  Equinox + 1                 
May 05  A Solar System Portrait     
May 06  NGC 4676: When Mice Collide 
May 07  Venus Unveiled              jnew 
May 08  Spinning Black Hole         Beat Sunspot Loops
May 09  The M7 Open Star Cluster    
May 10  Apollo 15's Home on the Moon(better high res version?!)
May 11  Giant Cluster Bends, Breaks 
May 12  Warped Spiral Galaxy ESO510-13 
May 13  All of Mars                 jnew
May 14  A Cerro Tololo Sky          
May 15  A Halo Around the Moon      Beats TRACE and the Active Sun
May 16  N44C: A Nebular Mystery     Replacement beats U. Filled with Hydrogen
May 17  The Far Infrared Sky
May 18  The Near Infrared Sky       Beats NGC 6369: A Donut Shaped Nebula
May 19  The Horsehead Nebula        Beats Nearby Leo I
May 20  Sagittarius Star Cloud      
May 21  Sunspot Loops in UV         New
May 22  Spiral Galaxy NGC 1232      Beats Center of Centarus A  ... very green!
May 23  Seemingly Square Nebula     jnew
May 24  Pleiades, Planets, Hot Plasma
May 25  Piece of Interplanetary Dust New
May 26  Alpha Centauri: Closest Star
May 27  Cosmic Ripples              New
May 28  Close-up of the Face on MarsRoot beer  (nearly duplicates cydonia; another face on mars!)
May 29  Working in Space
May 30  Very Large Array Turns Twenty  Generalize 20
May 31  Phobos: Doomed Moon of Mars 

Jun 01  Dust Hip-Deep on Phobos     too similar to doomed phobos?
Jun 02  An Unusual Globule in IC 1396  
Jun 03  Galaxies Away               
Jun 04  MyCn18: An Hourglass Nebula (beats ngc3603, comet Soho+neb)
Jun 05  Heart of the Crab
Jun 06  Eruption on Io
Jun 07  Annular Eclipse: Ring of Fire New
Jun 08  Active ... X class flares   solar x-ray pic with notsogood text
Jun 09  Lunar Rover                 beats hst "telling spiral"
Jun 10  H, He, and the Stars of M10
Jun 11  How to Make Planets         
Jun 12  Bubbling Galaxy             beats Venus just passing by
Jun 13  Carina Neb in IR            (2mass image) html title different from text title!
Jun 14  Venus, Just Passing By      replaces mediocre stuff ...
Jun 15  Messiers and Mars
Jun 16  Too Close to a Black Hole   Replaces Neutron Star Earth
Jun 17  Sky Full of Hydrogen        jnew
Jun 18  Jewel Box of Stars          southern stuff
Jun 19  Crescent Neptune            slightly neptune (beats good morn mars)
Jun 20  Total Eclipse of Active Sun ... will this text work?
Jun 21  Solstice Celebration        beats out sn1987a rings
Jun 22  Gullies of Mars             water or what?
Jun 23  Cygnus Loop                 how many jeff hesters?
Jun 24  Eight Burst Nebula          beats out Venus Rift Val
Jun 25  The Clouds of Jupiter       replaced image.beats strange gal,GRB host
Jun 26  Happy Birthday Messier      image: ap000311.html (adapt text) 
Jun 27  Sunflower Galaxy (m63)      beats cobe dipole, ahu hoku, mars facts
Jun 28  Inside the Eagle Nebula
Jun 29  Ida and Dactyl              asteroid and moon ...
Jun 30  Vintage Gamma-rays          beats "stars of M10"

Jul 01  Spiral Galaxy NGC 7742      Move to Dec 25, mention wreath similarity?
Jul 02  Aurora at Midnight          
Jul 03  Local Interstellar Cloud    New
Jul 04  Local Bubble                New
Jul 05  Step Gravitational Wave     New
Jul 06  Orange Soil on the Moon     New
Jul 07  The Gal Center Across Infrared Beats Apollo 15's Home on the Moon
Jul 08  7,000 Stars and Milky Way   jnew
Jul 09  Shapley 1 Annular PN        New
Jul 10  The Sudbury Neutrino Detector  Update text w/new Sudbury APOD
Jul 11  A Total Eclipse Over Africa
Jul 12  Asteroid Gaspra's Best Face Beats NGC 1850 
Jul 13  Vela Supernova Remnant Optical 
Jul 14  White Dwarf Stars Cool      New
Jul 15  Io in True Color
Jul 16  Pelican Nebula Ion Front    Replacement
Jul 17  Carina Nebula Three Colors  Beats Lightning, Hyakutake
Jul 18  Dwarf Elliptical NGC 205    New
Jul 19  The Tarantula Zone          jnew
Jul 20  Apollo 12 Self-Portrait     jnew
Jul 21  Nearby Spiral M33
Jul 22  Slightly Above Mars Pathfinder Beats M83; too similar to other marspath?
Jul 23  A Presidential Panorama Mars
Jul 24  Atlantis to Orbit           
Jul 25  Why Stars Twinkle           ?Use single frame? too grainy?
Jul 26  Noctilucent Clouds           
Jul 27  Antares                     Replacement
Jul 28  A Daytime Fireball in 1944  Beats Impact on Jupiter
Jul 29  Sagittarius Dwarf           New.  Great text vs horrible picture
Jul 30  A Blue Moon                 Beats Eagle Castle, R136 Breaks Out
Jul 31  CL1358+62: New Farthest Object R136 is very good and should find a home.

Aug 01  String of Pearls            beats "ring plane crossing" ?
Aug 02  Jupiter Swallows SL9        beats LMC by NOAO
Aug 03  3C196 Radio Galaxy          New  ?? is this really a radio image (check if +optical)??
Aug 04  Anticrepuscular rays        New
Aug 05  Orbiting Iceberg            beats geysers on triton ...
Aug 06  Hale-Bopp from Indian Cove
Aug 07  A Flock of Stars            sub'd
Aug 08  NGC 1365 Barred Spiral      sub'd
Aug 09  Solar Filament lifts off    text?
Aug 10  Tycho and Copernicus        ray craters!
Aug 11  Mystery in Gamma Rays       et al.
Aug 12  Perseid Meteor
Aug 13  Doomed Star Eta Car         beats out "dust"
Aug 14  Mars Rocks Sojourner Rolls  ... the beat ...  too similar to yogi rock!
Aug 15  The Solar Spectrum          oooooooohhhh
Aug 16  Where is Upsilon Andromedae?credit marcy/butler in text
Aug 17  The 47 UMa System           worlds of a distant sun ...
Aug 18  On the Origin of Gold       New
Aug 19  First Shuttle Launch        New. Move to April 12?
Aug 20  Lagoon Nebula in Three Colors
Aug 21  Twistin by the Lagoon 
Aug 22  East of the Lagoon Nebula   New, place near Lagoon?
Aug 23  Dark Spots on Neptune       too similar to Nep's Great Dark Spot
Aug 24  Microlensing Caustics
Aug 25  In the Center of the Trapezium Beats Close Up of Bubble Nebula
Aug 26  Brown Dwarfs of Orions Trapezium (alt- perseid aurora)
Aug 27  Trapezium: Teardrops in My Skies
Aug 28  The Helix Nebula From CFHT  (alt - x-ray pleiades)
Aug 29  The Eclipse Tree             New
Aug 30  Eclipsed Earth (from Mir) 
Aug 31  Full Throttle Deep Space 1  (alt picture at Ion Drive)

Sep 01  1999 JM8: A Rock Too Close
Sep 02  Hot Gas and Dark Matter     
Sep 03  Star Cluster R136 Bursts OutBeats '96 Pleiades
Sep 04  2dF Sees Waves of Galaxies
Sep 05  CFHT Star Trails 
Sep 06  HCG 87: Small Group GalaxiesBeats Largest Impact Crater
Sep 07  North America Nebula        New                
Sep 08  Spirograph Nebula           Replacement
Sep 09  Solar Magnetic Bananas      New
Sep 10  Gal Cen Flicker Black Hole  Beats WDs Cool
Sep 11  Spiral Galaxy NGC 3310      Beats Proplyds
Sep 12  Red Spider Planetary Nebula Beats M51, Infrared Saturn
Sep 13  Southwest Mercury
Sep 14  Mir Dreams                  replace mediocre stuff
Sep 15  The Big Corona              Too similar to Moon AND Sun, Beats O Mons
Sep 16  Jupiters Rings Revealed     Beats Sun Erupts
Sep 17  Southwest Andromeda         Beats GRB Fireball Persists
Sep 18  Zodiacal Light False Dawn   Replacement
Sep 19  Tycho Supernova Remnant     New.  X-ray pic!
Sep 20  Leonids From Orbit          jnew
Sep 21  The Quintuplet Star Cluster
Sep 22  At the Edge of the Helix    Beats Grand C of Mars, Solar M Arcade
Sep 23  Equinox Eruptive Prominence Beats Barnard 68
Sep 24  Molecular Cloud Barnard 68  
Sep 25  Love and War by Moonlight   jnew
Sep 26  Comet Borrelly's Nucleus    nucleus is dark, hot, very dry! change text?
Sep 27  A Venus Landing             Beats Our Galaxy in Stars, Gas, and Dust; higher res. available
Sep 28  Our Galaxy in Stars, Gas, Dust Replacement; too similar to other Milky Way shots?!
Sep 29  A Lonely Neutron Star       Replacement
Sep 30  Dusk of the Planets      Beats Spiral 1232, Massive Stars 30 Dor; highres color available?

Oct 01  Volcano Aurora Iceland      New
Oct 02  Moons of Earth              sub'd
Oct 03  Einstein Cross Lens         New
Oct 04  The Perfect Spiral          perfect
Oct 05  Sunspot Up Close
Oct 06  Hen 1357: A New Born Nebula
Oct 07  First Rocket Cape Canaveral New
Oct 08  A New Farthest Quasar       New
Oct 09  Brightest Object Yet Known  New
Oct 10  3C175: Quasar Cannon        New
Oct 11  Triton: Neptune's Largest Moon  date of triton discovery by herschel
Oct 12  The Water Vapor Channel     high res version?
Oct 13  Astronaut at Work           New
Oct 14  Far Side of the Moon        sub'd
Oct 15  Orion 2Mass                 New
Oct 16  Dust and Gas/ R Cor Australis
Oct 17  Mist in Mariner Valley
Oct 18  NGC 3606 Active Star Cluster 
Oct 19  X-ray Stars and Winds Rosette  chandra x-ray image ...
Oct 20  IR Uranus (don't laugh)     alt-Surveyor Slides
Oct 21  Sombrero Gal VLT            alt follow sunspots, titan's surface
Oct 22  Iridium 52: Not a Meteor
Oct 23  Millions of Stars in OmegaCen  beats upsilon and (lynette cook art)
Oct 24  N132D and the Color of X-ray jnew
Oct 25  Hubble's Variable Neb       sub'd
Oct 26  Map of Eros
Oct 27  Elements in Aftermath       chandra x-ray image ...
Oct 28  Rafting for Solar Neutrinos update text ...
Oct 29  NGC 6791 Open Cluster       New
Oct 30  Witch Head Nebula           sub'd
Oct 31  Ghost Head Nebula           alt - witch head nebula!

Nov 01  Total Lunar Eclipse         Replacement
Nov 02  PG 1115+080 Ghost Lensing Past Beats WD Cool, Galaxy Collision NGC 6745 
Nov 03  A Galaxy Collision in NGC 6745 Replacement
Nov 04  Leonids from Leo            Beats Apollo 12: Self-Portrait
Nov 05  Natural Saturn Cassini Cruise
Nov 06  Heaven on Earth              
Nov 07  Sun Pillar in Red and Violet 
Nov 08  Gum Nebula Supernova RemnantReplacement Beats Simulating the Universe
Nov 09  Spiral Galaxies in Collision
Nov 10  Ultraviolet Earth from Moon Replacement
Nov 11  The First Lunar Observatory Beats Aurora Above
Nov 12  Pangea Ultima               New
Nov 13  Disorder in Stephan's Quintet  Beats Seven Jets from Comet Hale-Bopp
Nov 14  M31: The Andromeda Galaxy   andromeda island universe is better pic! Beats Yardangs, Aurora in Orion
Nov 15  Recycling Columbia          Beats Deimos
Nov 16  A RADARSAT Map of Antarctica
Nov 17  Summer at the South Pole    dec. solstice text?
Nov 18  Prometheus Plume            (alt   A Fleeting Eclipse)
Nov 19  Diffraction Spikes          Beats Our Dusty Universe 
Nov 20  A Leonids Star Field        
Nov 21  Fire on Earth               Beats Galactic Ring of NGC 6782
Nov 22  Orion Nebula in Hydrogen    Beats Fireball, Smoke Trail, Meteor Storm
Nov 23  Leonids Above Torre         Beats Triton
Nov 24  Saturn's Moon Tethys
Nov 25  Two Hours Before Neptune    New
Nov 26  Earth's North Magnetic Pole New
Nov 27  Earth at Night              Beats Ancient Layered Rocks on Mars
Nov 28  Shadow at the Lunar South Pole 
Nov 29  Galactic Ring of NGC 6782   Replacement beats Leonids from Orbit
Nov 30  Europa Full Face

Dec 01  Hale-Bopp and Nebula        New
Dec 02  Magnetic Carpet of Sun      New
Dec 03  Rhea: Saturn's ...
Dec 04  AE Aurigae Flaming Star
Dec 05  Layered Mars                revise text? alt - Sky Filled w/Leonids
Dec 06  Southern Pinwheel M83
Dec 07  Dueling Auroras             New
Dec 08  Mediteranean Leonid 2001
Dec 09  Apollo 17 Lunarscape ...
Dec 10  The Antennae Galaxies       sub'd HST view ...
Dec 11  Reflecting Merope
Dec 12  Driving to the Sun ...      alt Milky Way thru Summer Triangle
Dec 13  3-D Mars North Pole
Dec 14  South Pole of Mars
Dec 15  Sher 25: Pending Supernova  New
Dec 16  NGC 3603: Beginning To End      New
Dec 17  NGC 7023:  The Iris Nebula
Dec 18  CG4: Ruptured Globule       New
Dec 19  Cartwheel of Fortune        alt Close up of Aurora on Jup
Dec 20  Hot Stars in the Trifid Neb.
Dec 21  Catching Falling Stardust
Dec 22  Nebula Nova Cygni Turns On  New
Dec 23  Earth in True Color         New
Dec 24  West Of The Great Red Spot
Dec 25  30 Doradus Across the Spectrum  ... christmas tree nebula?
Dec 26  Saturn Nebula               mediocre          
Dec 27  Moon Mare y Montes
Dec 28  Trifid Pillars and Jets
Dec 29  Millennium Defined Earth    New
Dec 30  Millennium Defines Universe New (see Dec 29)
Dec 31  APOD Astronomer and Geographer apologies to vermeer + text?

Waiting List:

Wai 01  Astronaut Kicks Lunar Field Goal
Wai 02  orion nebulosities
Wai 03  cone nebula IR close-up
Wai 04  planets over stonehenge
Wai 05  fireball smoke trail meteor storm
Wai 06  deimos, a small martian moon
Wai 07  aeolian mars
Wai 08  Equinox and Eruptive Prominence