To IceInSpace Members and Guests,

As IceInSpace continues to grow, it's important for us to learn more about our great community - to see what makes you tick. We want to find out more about your interest in astronomy, the type of equipment you use and how often you use it, where and how you do your observing or imaging, and more.

We're also very keen to learn more about how you use IceInSpace - how long you've been visiting, how often you visit, what sections you use the most, and what you want to see more of at IceInSpace.

We want to make sure we're providing you with the right content, the right features and functionality, and ensure we provide you with what you need to get the most of our your IceInSpace experience.

To do all this, we're undertaking our first major market research of our community - in the form of the IceInSpace Community Survey 2010. Your responses will help us make IceInSpace even better and continue to grow even stronger over the next 5 years.

The survey is 4 pages long, consists of 27 questions and should take you about 10 minutes to complete. Your participation in this research is completely voluntary - all questions are optional and you can withdraw from the survey at any point.

Your survey responses will be strictly confidential and data from this research will be reported only in the aggregate. Your information will be coded and will remain confidential.

If you have questions at any time about the survey, please Contact Us at IceInSpace. You can also post any thoughts or discussion about the survey in this thread on the IceInSpace Forum.

Thank you very much for your time and support. Please start with the survey now by clicking on the link below:

IceInSpace Community Survey 2010

Thanks

In the first week of January 2010, IceInSpace passed another milestone - reaching 7000 members!

What a great way to start 2010.

The last 1000 members has come in only just over 7 months - a fantastic rate of growth and shows that astronomy is alive and kicking and still growing strong.

It also shows that IceInSpace continues to be a great source of information and knowledge sharing - an attribute that only comes through its members sharing their expertise, helping each other, and making this place what it is today.

So thanks to the IceInSpace community for your contributions, your friendships, your questions, your answers, your images and everything that has helped make IceInSpace the largest and most active astronomy site in the Southern Hemisphere, and one of the premier astronomy sites in the world.

Bring on 8000! Tell a friend! If you'd like to share any thoughts on the 7000 member milestone, please do so here.

Did You Get a New Telescope for Xmas?

Are you a new IceInSpace member? Did you get a new telescope for xmas and not really sure how to use it or what to look for?

The answers are just a question away. Please don't be shy - head to the Beginners forum and post an introduction and/or ask some questions. There's heaps of friendly IceInSpace members ready to help you get the most of our your new telescope and to help develop the life-long bond and love for astronomy.

Click New Thread in the top of the Beginners forum to start your new journey in Astronomy and on IceInSpace.

IceInSpace on Facebook

The IceInSpace Facebook page now has over 540 fans, thanks to everyone for embracing the new social media and please share/suggest to your friends. We love Astronomy, and it's only natural to think that everyone else should love it too! :)

New Article and Review

There's 1 new article and 1 new review today:

• One-Off Printed Circuit Board Making at Home
• SkyWatcher 114mm (4.5”) by 900mm Newtonian on EQ2 mount

Thanks as always to the authors for sharing their knowledge and experience with friends on IceInSpace.

Thanks for reading, keep looking up and keep coming back for more news and exciting changes on IceInSpace in the coming months.

Hi all

With 2009, the International Year of Astronomy, drawing to a close, I thought it's now a perfect time to reflect upon the past year and highlight some of the more popular events, topics and statistics here on IceInSpace.

As a common trend, showcase astronomical events always bring the most visitors to IceInSpace - particularly the general public, and especially if the media grabs hold of it and reports about it on the various media outlets. The four most popular astronomical events in 2009 were:

1. Anthony Wesley (forum member "bird") discovered an impact strike on Jupiter
2. Total Solar Eclipse, 22nd July 2009
3. 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landings
4. Conjunctions, transits and eclipses 

Some of the most popular topics and threads on the IceInSpace Forum are often the ones in General Chat where we get to know each other a bit more. This is reflected again in the stats below, showing some of the most popular topics in 2009:

• Jupiter impact confirmed by JPL
• A Day of Devastation
• Is spelling old fashioned?
• What are you reading?
• I have a confession to make... 

Other popular threads were Star Party threads, particularly the ones about IIASC2009, Qld Astrofest and the SPSP.

During 2009, we passed some significant milestones, including:

• Passing 6,000 registered members (almost 7,000 now!)
• Turning 5 years old in September
• Passing 50,000 threads and 500,000 posts!
• Launching our first IceInSpace Compendium
• Launching the IceInSpace Facebook Page.
• Holding our 4th IceInSpace AstroCamp (IISAC2009)

Some other interesting IceInSpace statistics for 2009 include:

• Over 2,000 new member registrations (a little more than 2008) 
• Over 140,000 new posts (over 30% more than 2008)
• Almost 8,000,000 page views (over 30% more than 2008)
• Over 1,600 sets of items have been bought and sold through the IceTrade Classifieds (almost 50% more than 2008! What GFC!?)
• Apart from the IceInSpace Forum, the most popular pages on IceInSpace were the homepage, the Projects and Articles page, the Reviews page, the Moon Phase page and the Links page
• 47% of people are still browsing IceInSpace using Internet Explorer (55% last year). 2nd is Firefox with 39% (37% last year). Safari and Chrome make up almost 10%. 

I'm really looking forward to what 2010 will bring, for astronomy and for IceInSpace.

On behalf of IceInspace, Terry and I would like to thank everyone for being part of a fantastic year and a fantastic community. We wish everyone a safe and happy christmas and we'll be back with more in 2010!

All the best to you and your families.