We have posted a new update to our comet update page in our "Countdown to 500 Comets" program. This update reflects the fact that Comet Christensen C/2006 W3 is now visible in the morning sky.
July 3, 2008
Since the beginning of 2008 we have been maintaining somewhat of a low profile while we have been engaging in some refocusing efforts that will allow us to be a more responsive space-oriented research and educational organization. We are now about ready to start announcing some of the efforts that we have been developing during this time, and will be doing so through this page over the coming few weeks.
At this time we are formally deactivating most of the links to the fundraising campaign we initiated in late 2006 in conjunction with a matching grant commitment made to us at that time by private space explorer Anousheh Ansari. (We will maintain links to the page for this campaign from a handful of pages that discuss it in historical terms.) Within the near future we will be initiating a new fundraising campaign, and will announce it here at the appropriate time (and we will include a direct link from our home page). All contributions made to Earthrise after July 1, 2008 will be included towards this new campaign.
By request, any organizations (and individuals) that make contributions to Earthrise at the "Earthrise Associate" or "Earthrise Contributor" level (see our donor page for an explanation of these levels) may now have a link to their organization's (or personal) web site as a part of their listing on our Contributor's page.
We have posted a new update to our comet update page in our "Countdown to 500 Comets" program. This update reflects the fact that Comet Boattini C/2007 W1 is again visible from the northern hemisphere and is bright enough to be easily visible in binoculars, and perhaps even dimly visible to the unaided eye under good sky conditions.
In recognition of the fact that "Countdown to 500 Comets" is an educational program, we are making a slight change to the update page format beginning with this update. We will highlight with red print any comets that are 9th magnitude or brighter (and that are also easily accessible for observation) at the time of the update in question; these comets should be detectable from suburban areas with small telescopes, and thus are those that are specifically recommended for "Countdown" participating students.
We wish a Happy Fourth of July celebration to our participants and friends here in the U.S.
June 28, 2008
The "In Our Skies" e-book available through our Earthrise Store now has columns up through the end of the second quarter of 2008. Among the columns from the past three months are: "Away, Across the Universe" (April 4), "A Meeting of Worlds" (May 2), "Phoenix Arrives!" (May 30), and "Tunguska Centennial" (June 27).
June 25, 2008
We have posted a new update to our comet update page in our "Countdown to 500 Comets" program.
June 15, 2008
We have posted a new update to our comet update page in our "Countdown to 500 Comets" program.
June 4, 2008
Comet 434 has now been added to the "Countdown to 500 Comets" program, and our comet update page has been updated accordingly.
We are pleased to welcome Giuseppe Pappa of Mascalucia, Sicily, Italy as a new Mentor for "Countdown to 500 Comets." In addition to being an active comet observer Giuseppe has (so far) successfully discovered at least two comets with the LASCO coronagraphs aboard SOHO.
June 2, 2008
For the past few months we have been quietly working on some refocusing efforts here at Earthrise, and there are several exciting projects that may be coming to fruition within the not-too-distant future. We are tentatively planning some announcements to this effect around July 1; stay tuned!
Comet 433 has now been added to the "Countdown to 500 Comets" program, and our comet update page has been updated accordingly. This update also reflects the fact that the current naked-eye Comet Boattini C/2007 W1 is now visible only from the southern hemisphere, and that Comet Broughton C/2006 OF2 has now reappeared in the morning sky.
We congratulate the team of the Phoenix Mars Lander mission for their successful landing on the Martian surface this past May 25, and we look forward to exciting results from Phoenix during the coming weeks and months.
May 25, 2008
We are saddened to note the passing away of the mother of Earthrise team member Wynne Lienhardt during this past week. Wynne has been both a strong financial supporter and a strong moral supporter of Earthrise for several years, and we extend our condolences to her and her family during this sad time.
We have posted a new update to our comet update page in our "Countdown to 500 Comets" program. This update reflects the current naked-eye visibility of Comet Boattini C/2007 W1 as well as Comet 15P/Finlay, currently visible from the southern hemisphere and which should hopefully be added to "Countdown" by sometime in July.
We wish "good luck!" to the team of the Phoenix Mars Lander mission in their attempt for a successful landing upon the surface of Mars later today, and we hopefully look forward to exciting results from Phoenix during the coming weeks and months.
May 14, 2008
Earthrise President Alan Hale will be speaking at the National Atomic Museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico this coming Saturday afternoon (May 17) at 5:30 P.M. (MDT). Copies of his book Everybody's Comet will be for sale.
Recent calculations have shown that the orbits for "Countdown" comets 430 and 431 (both recently-discovered objects) are somewhat different from those originally calculated, and we have updated their tally page entries accordingly.
May 10, 2008
Comets 431 and 432 have now been added to the "Countdown to 500 Comets" program, and our comet update page has been updated accordingly. Comet 432 was discovered by "Countdown" mentor Quanzhi Ye last July, and may become bright enough for naked-eye visibility in early 2009; we are delighted to add this comet to the program.
May 4, 2008
Comet 430 has now been added to the "Countdown to 500 Comets" program, and our comet update page has been updated accordingly.
We have now begun a "What's New" archive page for the 2008 entries.
April 25, 2008
We have posted a new update to our comet update page in our "Countdown to 500 Comets" program.
A fairly bright new nova has appeared in the constellation Sagittarius, located at 18h06m.0, -27d 14' (2000.0 coordinates), slightly north of the "spout" of the "teapot." When discovered by Japanese amateur astronomers Koichi Nishiyama and Fujio Kabashima on April 18 it was about magnitude 8 1/2, but according to the most recent reports it is now near magnitude 6 1/2 and thus is near naked-eye visibility.
April 13, 2008
We have posted a new update to our comet update page in our "Countdown to 500 Comets" program.
When we suffered our computer system crash last September we lost the capability of obtaining astronomical images with our telescope and imaging system. Because of problems we encountered in getting the correct software loaded and operational, and also because we have been concentrating on other issues, we have not been able to obtain any images since then. We are now happy to announce that our imaging system is now up and operational again, and on the night of April 11-12 we obtained images of Comet Boattini C/2007 W1; we have posted one of these in our image gallery. We hope to be utilizing our imaging system much more extensively during the months to come.
April 6, 2008
Comet 429 has now been added to the "Countdown to 500 Comets" program, and our comet update page has been updated accordingly.