Designing the Lens Zoo: Have Your Say!

Over at the brand new Lens Zoo project blog we are starting to document our progress towards a new zoo being built this autumn – a zoo for finding gravitational lenses! A small but dedicated band of lens hunters has been active on the Galaxy Zoo forum for several years – while we are still working with them on the objects they have found so far, we’d also like to help them extend their science investigations by providing new data and new tools in the new zoo. If you’ve  spent time on the forums looking for rare objects like lenses, or have stumbled across something unusual that has led to an interesting adventure in the Galaxy Zoo, we’d like to hear from you – we’re trying to figure out how to help you make one-in-a-thousand discoveries.

So: what features should the Lens Zoo website have, to help us find as many lenses as possible? We are planning a workshop in mid-July to discuss the interface and tools for the new Zoo, and to give us something to talk about, we’d love to hear from all you lens-hunters out there. We’ve setup a web form for you to send us any ideas about functionality or tools that you think would be useful in finding lenses. Here’s the address in full:

http://tinyurl.com/lens-zoo-survey

We’ll go through all your ideas when we meet up in Zurich, and keep you posted on the Lens Zoo blog!

Stay tuned, and thanks for your help.

Phil, Aprajita & the Lens Zoo team