Hi all

With 2008 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 three most popular astronomical events in 2008 were:

1. Smiley Face Conjunction, 1st December 2008 (pics here)
2. Partial Solar Eclipse, 7th February 2008 (pics and animation from Brisbane here)
3. Partial Lunar Eclipse, 17th August 2008 (animation from Perth here)

Some of the most popular topics and threads on the IceInSpace Forum were:

• Perfect focusing with the bahtinov mask
• What do you do for work?
• What are your OTHER hobbies?
• The introduction of green laser pointer laws
• The axing of the ABC Radio show "StarStuff"

During 2008, we passed some significant milestones, including reaching 5,000 registered members, and turning 4 years old in September. Some other IceInSpace statistics for 2008 include:

• Almost 2,000 new member registrations
• Approx 110,000 new posts
• Over 6,000,000 page views
• Over 1,200 sets of items have been bought and sold through the IceTrade Classifieds
• 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
• 55% of people are still browsing IceInSpace using Internet Explorer - but it's coming down. 2nd is Firefox with 37%.

From a personal point of view, 2008 has been exciting but also very challenging.

• I started a new job in January, which has been a mix of exciting, rewarding, challenging and frustrating
• I've generally had poor weather and have found it difficult to motivate myself for astronomy
• I launched my personal website blog and image gallery, mikesalway.com.au
• I was fortunate enough to be featured on APOD twice! (30th Sep, 5th Dec)
• I started selling prints on RedBubble, and have been rewarded with a few sales already.

I'm really looking forward to what 2009 will bring, for astronomy and for IceInSpace. Being the International Year of Astronomy, it should be an even bigger year than 2008 as there's likely to be a lot more media interest in astronomy in general, and particular some of the big astronomical events.

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 2009!

All the best to you and your families.