And waiting for new pictures from those cameras...June 2017

by AvastMH moderator

Hello everyone,

Just a quick note to say that new pictures are being processed so you will be able to enjoy marking penguins again. 😃 Of course, with a picture taken nearly every minute of the summer in Antarctica for over 100 sites, that's a lot of processing so the new pictures will still be a while coming into the system for us. 😄

For those of you still able to access pictures please do carry on marking. Support from the moderators will continue as usual.

For those (including me) where we've run through all of our pictures, please stay in touch. There are many other 'nature' Zooniverse projects available in the meantime. I always mention PlanktonPortal because the plankton feed the krill that feed the penguins. Good tip is - open PlanktonPortal twice in your browser and mark with one tab, keep the other tab to check the Field Guide/Moderator's collections. I'll be logged in over there regularly, and our moderator yshish is a moderator on that project.

Best wishes, AvastMH

Posted June 10, 2017 9:08 PM

by Hatschi

Nice to read that new pictures are coming up, AvastMH 😃
I'm already suffering withdrawing symptoms and am really looking forward to more penguins.

Posted June 12, 2017 11:48 AM

by coldcounter

You and me both Hatschi 😄 I think many of us are poised ready for the new images to hit the site.

Posted June 12, 2017 12:06 PM

by AvastMH moderator

It's good to hear that you are ready and waiting for the new pictures. I'm wondering if we'll get any new sites. Will the pictures be as amazingly stunning as the last lot? Will we see Billy grow up and fledge? What will happen to Sally and Simon when Billy goes to sea? I can't wait to find out 😄

One thing I had not realized until recently is that there are two cameras on the Egg_Rock site pole. Looks like one is a back-up and goes off about ?every hour or so. I guess all of those things need to be unscrambled which would go a long way to explaining the time taken to prepare each set.

Thanks for keeping an eye on things here @Hatschi and @coldcounter 😄

Posted June 12, 2017 12:58 PM

by gardenmaeve moderator

Hello, everyone. The magic of computerization has shaken out the bag of photos from this last season, so now we do have some photos to finish up with your help, please. It's a great time to review the FAQ. At some point after we finish classifying these we look forward to a fresh new pile of perfectly compiled photos.
😃 😃

Posted June 15, 2017 11:38 AM

by gardenmaeve moderator

Dear Penguinites, If you are still able to classify any images, please do so. There may be a few around...and they must be finished to let the new images eventually be loaded. 😃 Thanks!

Posted June 17, 2017 6:11 PM

by Hatschi

I'm still out of data - but I'm so busy at the moment that that's actually not bad for me 😉
It just throws me back on my personal goal to have 10.000 images classified by the end of 2017. Nearly 1300 still to go (which is about 7 - 8 a day, so not that much)

Posted June 19, 2017 11:59 AM

by gardenmaeve moderator

Same here @Hatschi- no data yet. As you say there are plenty of other things to keep us busy...but we'll be happy to have new images. Soon, we hope! 😃

Thanks for stopping by and posting. 😃 😃

Posted June 19, 2017 12:02 PM

by Hatschi

Still no penguins to count.
So I thought I'll bring one for you. (Hope this works)
Penguin

didn't work, what a pity

Posted June 28, 2017 11:41 AM

by gardenmaeve moderator

That's all right. We know our devoted Penguinologists-in-Training are ready and willing

to commence the next season as soon as the penguins arrive from the fishing grounds. 😉
Soon... soon... soon... soon...

In the meantime, I've slipped in several succinct suggestions:

Refresh your penguin-spotting sharp eyes.
Rehearse your penguin gestures.
Renegotiate your penguin-spotting time allowance.
Renew your penguin poetry preparedness.
Renovate your penguin viewing stretch routine.
Restock your penguin-counting snack supplies (krill supplements
strictly forbidden!)
Restore your penguin counting seat cushions.
Review your Penguin Watch FAQ recollection (some improvements in the works.)
Revise your Penguin Watch personal Collections.
Revisit your favourite penguin rookery sites.**

enter image description here

Posted June 28, 2017 3:25 PM

by coldcounter

Hope it is soon @gardenmaeve ... while I am adjusting to plankton I miss the penguins 😦 hope they are back when I get back from holidays 😃

Posted June 29, 2017 4:19 AM

by gardenmaeve moderator

Thank you for taking care of the vital plankton, @coldcounter ! We'll be sure to post an update as soon as we can (it is a long swim for little photo files. 😉 )

Posted June 29, 2017 10:04 AM

by Singing_Ginger

Can't get on with plankton - they do my head in. So I've temporarily defected to chimps

Posted June 30, 2017 4:23 PM

by gardenmaeve moderator

Not a defection really, @Singing_Ginger! We all help other projects- it's the Way of the Zooniverse! 😃

Posted June 30, 2017 7:51 PM

by AvastMH moderator

I like that idea - very 'Zen'... 'The Way of the Zooniverse'. It is true though. The Elephant project went through its first set of pictures in a blink so they are still waiting for the next set to be ready. It's good to spread our skills around at times. 😃

Posted June 30, 2017 10:18 PM

by coldcounter in response to Singing_Ginger's comment.

Oh @Singing_Ginger I feel your pain in regards to the plankton. This was my third attempt at trying to get my head around the snow screens of nothingness but with persistence after a few hundred I began to recognise the differences. It is still very much a learning process but you learn 😃

Posted July 1, 2017 1:33 AM

by coldcounter in response to Singing_Ginger's comment.

I also think it has something to do with personalities ... penguins and chimps both have faces and eyes we can kinda relate to. I am going to get worried if I start relating to medusa ephyrae (I keep wondering where the snakes are?) thou I enjoy see the shrimp because I keep thinking krill!

Posted July 1, 2017 1:39 AM

by AvastMH moderator

😄 😄 😄 I like the radiolarian string colonies - they are very easy to identify for a start, and they remind me of the paper chains that you make at Christmas. And if you get very lucky they look like a letter. I'm still hoping for an 'A' for Avastmh 😉 😄

Posted July 1, 2017 11:46 AM

by yshish moderator, translator

Oh, thank you guys so much for your endless attempts to learn how to classify plankton! Just wanted to say how much we appreciate every single classification on the Plankton Portal! I must say that my feelings were the same when I came to the project for the first time! It is not an easy one when you start, but after a while, it will pay back for all your effort by showing such incredible images that you just have to repeat WOW a couple of times aloud! And those moments are priceless. There are many volunteers who knew nothing about plankton and now classify as experts. Some hints for you:

There are 5 basic shape categories to be seen:

Round, no tentacles
Head with tail
Jellyfish-like
Ribbon-elongated
Bug-like

And then a couple of categories under each shape. Usually each category is not a single species, but rather a group of very similar looking guys - that's why we use nicknames as the category labels (and also because the nicknames will help to remember the shape more easily) 😃

So stick with the shape at first and choose the guy who looks the most similar to the one you see - if there's a tentacle, even a short one, then it is probably Head with tail or Jellyfish-like. Jellyfish-like is the medusa shape - round body with tentacles growing all around, but Head with tail is a body with usually one or two branching tentacles/tails.

There is usually some noise in the image - many particles floating in the water mass made of dead organic matter. It is called marine-snow and you don't have to care about that. Also, there are small round single objects - Protists you won't find among the categories because we don't mark them either. When you aren't sure whether the object you see is a something, then don't classify it.

Also, you can open the Field Guide in another browser tab and choose from the list of options more easily! Don't forget to ask when you're having troubles. I'll reply to all your questions immediately.

Don't worry if you confuse some categories - there are also experienced volunteers classifying the same data, and all the results will be compared to their classification! 😃

Thanks again to everyone who gives it a chance. You are my heroes!

Hope to meet some of you on the Talk!

Cheers,
Zuzi

Posted July 2, 2017 8:39 AM

by AvastMH moderator

Aha!! Thanks for this yshish! Bit late tonight but I'll digest your plankton note tomorrow. I'll leave digesting plankton to the whales 😄 😄 😄

Posted July 3, 2017 12:14 AM

by coldcounter in response to yshish's comment.

Thank you @yshish I will preserve. I feel like I am winning sometimes and then get one that is so confusing but that is all part of it. I do agree though that you get the WOW.... where did that come from moments which I equate to magnificent icebergs and light on PW. I daresay even when PW comes back up for air .... I will continue doing plankton as well 😃

Posted July 3, 2017 2:21 AM

by yshish moderator, translator in response to coldcounter's comment.

Thank YOU, ladies! 😃

One more suggestion, when you feel like the images of plankton are too noisy and difficult, try switching the data sets on the mainpage - there are two of them: 1st - Californian (CAL); 2nd - Mediterranean (MED). There are few differences in the categories between them, some animals are marked in one of the data sets only. And what is pretty common in MED can be rare in CAL and vice versa. So you can find the other data set easier or more fun 😉

Posted July 3, 2017 3:10 PM