How points work
Points thank you for adding to Starbook: publishing your work with the story of how you made it, and taking the time to look at, rate and talk about other people's. Nothing here can be bought.
How points work
Points thank you for adding to Starbook: publishing your work with the story of how you made it, and taking the time to look at, rate and talk about other people's. Nothing here can be bought.
On this page
The quick version
What earns most:
- 10Publish a picture
- 5Add a full recipe
- 5Plate-solved
- 2Someone likes it
- 50Top 10
Everything else is in the tables below, each folded under its heading.
Levels
- 1Stargazer0
- 2Observer100
- 3Night Owl300
- 4Imager750
- 5Astrophotographer1,500
- 6Deep Sky Hunter3,000
- 7Nebula Chaser6,000
- 8Galaxy Hunter12,000
- 9Star Forger25,000
- 10Cosmic Legend50,000
Your pictures
| What you do | Points | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Publish a picture | 10 | 3 a night |
| It carries its capture details (scope, and frames or integration time) | 5 | once per picture |
| It is plate solved and verified against the stars | 5 | once per picture |
| It carries a full processing recipe | 5 | once per picture |
| A new object for your own collection | 5 | once per object |
| The first picture of an object on Starbook | 50 | once site-wide |
| Your first picture published from Astro Sidekick | 10 | once |
Helping others
| What you do | Points | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Comment on someone else's picture (20+ characters, in words) | 2 | 15 a night |
| Review: a comment with your rating attached, 40+ characters (instead of the comment's points) | 5 | 5 a night, once each |
| Rate a picture | 1 | 20 a night |
| Share a picture from its Share menu, your own or anyone's | 1 | 5 a night, once each |
| Someone visits through a link you shared, your own picture or anyone's (opening your own link does not count) | 3 | 20 a night (10 signed out) |
What others do for you
| What happens | Points | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Someone likes your picture | 2 | 10 a night per member |
| Someone saves it | 3 | 10 a night per member |
| Someone comments on it (20+ characters) | 1 | 10 a night per member |
| Someone rates it 4–5 stars (3 stars: 1, 1–2 stars: 0) | 3 | 10 a night per member |
| Every 100 views of a picture (one per person per day) | 5 | no limit |
| Someone downloads your master data | 2 | once a day per person |
The ranking
| What happens | Points | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Your picture enters the Top 100 | 15 | once per entry |
| Your picture enters the Top 10 | 50 | once per entry |
| Each day it stays in the Top 10, days 1–7 | 10 | daily |
| Each day it stays, days 8–30 | 5 | daily |
| Each day it stays, from day 31 | 2 | daily |
| Your picture reaches #1 | 100 | once per picture |
Picked by Starbook
| What happens | Points | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Your picture is the Image of the Day | 100 | once per picture |
| Your picture is a hot pick for Starbook’s Facebook and Instagram | 25 | once per picture |
| Your picture becomes a Messier or Caldwell object’s Catalogue reference | 25 | once per picture |
Being here
| What you do | Points | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Visit while signed in | 1 | once a night |
| An active week: 3+ nights you visited in a week (Monday to Sunday) | 5 | once a week |
| An active month: 10+ nights you visited in a calendar month | 15 | once a month |
| Complete your profile (a picture and a bio) | 10 | once |
Streaks
| What you do | Points | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| A visit streak reaches 7 nights | 10 | once per streak |
| A visit streak reaches 30 nights | 50 | once per streak |
| A visit streak reaches 100 nights | 150 | once per streak |
| A visit streak reaches 365 nights | 500 | once per streak |
Groups
| What you do | Points | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| A group you started reaches 10 members (official groups excluded) | 20 | once per group |
Forums
| What you do | Points | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Start a thread in a forum (20+ characters, in words) | 2 | 3 a night |
| Reply in a forum thread (20+ characters, in words) | 1 | 10 a night |
| Your reply is accepted as the answer to someone else's question | 5 | once per question |
Events
| What you do | Points | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| You RSVP Going to an event and a picture of yours lands in its album | 5 | once per event |
Remix
| What you do | Points | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Publish a remix of someone else's picture or data | 10 | 3 a night |
| Someone publishes a remix of your picture or data | 10 | once per member |
| Someone checks out your picture or data to remix it | 2 | 10 a night per member |
Streaks and cloudy nights
Your visit streak counts the observing nights in a row you visited Starbook while signed in. A night runs from noon to noon in your time zone.
Your share streak counts the nights in a row you shared a picture from its Share menu, and weekly posting the weeks in a row (Monday to Sunday) you published at least one.
Cloudy nights keep your visit streak going: you get 1 at the start of each week and can save 2. Miss a night with one saved and it is used for you; the streak goes on (a cloudy night does not add to it). Miss more nights than you have saved and the streak starts again. Share streaks and weekly posting have no cloudy nights.
Visit-streak milestones earn points once per streak: reach 7 nights again after a break and it counts again; rebuilding the same streak never does.
The Regular, Sharer and Steady Hand badges go by your best streak ever, so a broken streak keeps them.
Badges are earned alongside points: see every badge.
The ranking grows with the site
Today 266 pictures are published, so the ranking's points are worth their full value.
Fair play
- A night runs from noon to noon in your own time zone, so an imaging session past midnight is one night. Every “a night” limit counts within it.
- Nothing on your own pictures earns points: no liking, rating or reviewing your own work. Sharing is the one exception: sharing your own pictures, and the visits through your link, count.
- Points are earned and given only with a confirmed email address. When you confirm yours, everything you did before counts.
- Likes, saves, comments and ratings from accounts under two days old, or with fewer than three published pictures, count at a quarter.
- What is taken back takes its points with it: an unlike, a deleted or hidden comment, a lowered rating, a picture hidden or removed, an account suspended. Doing it again later counts once, never twice.
- The first picture of an object is the earliest one published, and it keeps its points even when a better one arrives.
- A quarter-weighted gift is worth part of a point; rows and totals are shown in whole points, rounded to the nearest.