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.