Michael Jarvis:
On a related note, it would be helpful to have some recommendations on what makes an image competitive for Top Pick/IOTD recognition.
This tells you which potential issues to be on the lookout for:
https://welcome.astrobin.com/iotd#photographer-guidelines
Generally speaking, besides being free of technical issues, there are subjective factors that make an image appealing to be voted, so it's hard to say. Elements of composition, uniqueness of the object, capturing a special event, and so on, will surely affect the likelihood of an image being voted.
