This is off topic but interesting as I believe some here are interested in astronomy, galleons and, a bit more relevant, papyri. Excerpt:

If they ever run out of galaxies, citizen scientists will certainly have plenty of other projects to satisfy their after-hours cravings. Galaxy Zoo itself has created a little solar system of related projects – Zooniverse – based on the original model, that include a moon mapping site (with photographic definition that would allow you to see an astronaut’s footprint); an extraordinary project called Old Weather that reproduces millions of pages of scanned ship’s logbooks, written in the cursive script of navy captains, from which thousands more volunteers have been painstakingly extracting weather records, to extend our understanding of climate change to the era before meteorological stations were established (along the way, Old Weather is also revealing the spread of infectious diseases, port to port); there are also growing armies of more specialist enthusiasts translating papyri, and cataloguing whale noises. The crowdsourcing of amateur enthusiasts now extends to the search for extraterrestrial life, in the SETI project, to the imaginative classification of all oil paintings in public ownership in Britain (the Public Catalogue Foundation), to all kinds of botanical mapping opportunities.

Fantastic too that Hanny’s Voorwerp looks set to enter the language.

Thanks for the link and the heads up. I’ve run across mentions of Galaxy Zoo before, but I never followed the links. Looks like a fun place, I’m off to register.

Wonderful article, thanks for sharing it.

Edit: I passed the link on to my brother, and he told me about the Moon Zoo.

Thanks for the link, vb, just noticed this thread. I’m certainly going to sign up. My first passion at primary school was the solar system and all points beyond. Which brings to mind a PK Dick story, Beyond Lies The Wub. (One of his first, I believe). I may not find a Wub to converse with but a uniquely odd object would serve.

Papyri project.