A1: APOD stands for the Astronomy Picture of the Day. We abbreviate this as APOD instead of ApotD because APOD sounds better (spoken: AYE-pod).

A1. DDI stands for Direct Dial Inwards and is a number provided by BT that can be set to bypass a switch board and ring direct to an individual's phone or Fax. They are also commonly used during advertising campaigns, so that the sales or marketing departments can "see" how often a number is being used from different Adverts etc.

Anno Societatis, or Year of the Society, counted from May 1, 1966 CE.

It stands for Freedom, which is the original name of the architecture, or Free, in the GNU/GPL sense. The F does not stand for free in a monetary sense. You will have to pay for the F1 chip, just as you have to pay nowadays for a copy of a GNU/Linux distribution on CD-ROMs. Of course, you're free to take the design and masks to your favorite fab and have a few batches manufactured for your own use.

A2: Click the < less than sign < at the left of today's APOD link line (near the bottom of the daily page).

A4: Yes. Many of our readers have been with us less than a year and are unaware of some really spectacular or important astronomy pictures. New information about old pictures is becoming available over the WWW. The text and links for rerun pictures will make use of this newly available information. So although the picture might be old, some of the text and links of each APOD will be new.

A11: Selections from APOD's daily pages have been compiled into two books titled "Universe: 365 Days" (May 1, 2003) and "Astronomy: 365 Days" (October 1, 2006) - Publisher: Harry N Abrams.

A12: For the years 2000-2005, yes! These CDs are created by the kind folks at the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The free CDs can be ordered by sending mail to this address. Dr. James Lochner Imagine The Universe Mail Code 660 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD 20770 USA

A14: If the "Tomorrow" line at the bottom of today's APOD is not blank, then at least until tomorrow. (Probably.) We certainly have no plans to stop soon. If you check the apod archive you can see that it begins in June 1995. A15: Probably not. NASA has archived literally hundreds of thousands of space and astronomy related pictures and APOD readers have come to submit many images for our consideration. So far, we have more good pictures than we can run.

A16: Robert J. Nemiroff and Jerry T. Bonnell have written most every APOD. Bob and Jerry are friends, professional astronomers, and were once office-mates at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. Presently, Bob is a professor at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan, USA, while Jerry is a scientist at NASA/Goddard. They are two mild and lazy guys who might otherwise appear normal to an unsuspecting guest.

ODEP stands for Output Device Emulator Protection. ODEP is an analog computer simulation of the output device thermal impedance. In layman's terms ODEP stores how much power the amplifier delivers to its load and its heatsink temperature. If the protection circuit determines that the output stage is being overstressed or cannot dissipate any further heat, then output stage drive is limited (Also see the FAQ, "What is TLC?" below).

IBLA is the name of the ancient Baroque quarters of Ragusa - Ibla, the southernmost province of Italy in Sicily. Ragusa and Ibla are two sister cities built on two 300 m. hills. Ibla is the ancient city and Ragusa is the more modern one. The Monti Iblei that surround the area take the name from the ancient Ibla. The Mediterrenean coast line is only 18 minutes away. It overlooks the island of Malta. The closest airport is Catania Fontanarossa Airport, 2 hours away.

NAMI, the Nation's Voice on Mental Illness was founded in 1979 as the National Alliance on Mental Illness. "NAMI" was officially made our corporate name in 1997, after a vote of the membership. This was done after years of discussion that the full name was not person-first language and perpetuated the very stigma we hope to erase.

NORML is a nonprofit, public-interest lobby that for more than 30 years has provided a voice for those Americans who oppose marijuana prohibition. We represent the interests of the tens of millions of Americans who smoke marijuana responsibly and believe the recreational and medicinal use of marijuana should no longer be a crime.

RIMYI is an abbreviation for Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute. Ramamani was the name of BKS Iyengar's wife. She died in 1973.

UMF stands for "Unique Manuka Factor", and is the trademark for the special antibacterial property found in Manuka Honey. When honey is diluted, a special enzyme the bees have added produces hydrogen peroxide, a well known antibiotic. Manuka Honey has been found to have an antibacterial activity in addition to hydrogen peroxide. No one has so far discovered the substance involved, so it is called UMF.