I’m fairly bland in my choice of desktop picture, preferring something abstract and smooth that doesn’t get in the way nor prove too distracting. My dad, on the other hand, is a big fan of Astronomy Picture of the Day, to the extent that he has his desktop set to refresh from it.
So while I’m not using these myself, you, dear reader, might find some happy desktop joy in this collection from photographer Steve Paxton.
The APOD site you refer to ie.http://www.railheaddesign.com/index.php/software/apodgrabber/ is no longer supported.
The NASA site now has an RSS feed
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
from which one can download the image to desktop.
Fascinating blog! Thanks for the plug!