Haven't I seen this picture previously run as an 
<a href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html">Astronomy 
Picture of the 
Day</a> (APOD) ?

<p>

Yes.  Here's why:

<ul>
<li> Many of our readers have been with us less than a year and are unaware 
of some really spectacular or important astronomy pictures.

<li> New information about old pictures is becoming available over the
WWW.  The text and links for re-run pictures will make use of this
newly available information.  So although the picture might be old, the
text and links of each APOD will be new.

<li> More WWW surfers have larger bandwidth - allowing us to post bigger
image files that can be transferred conveniently.  Software to
handle more sophisticated image file formats has also become more common.
So although the picture might be old, its size and/or format will be new.

<li> It saves us time and helps us update our archive.
</ul>

<p>

Our rerun policy, currently is this: 

<ul>
<li> Re-run pictures must be more than one year old.  So all pictures will 
remain relatively "new" to new APOD viewers.

<li> <b> We will NOT re-run more than two pictures in any given week.</b>  
So when you load the current APOD, it is still, most probably, a new
picture. 
</ul>

<p>

- Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell