Regular visitors to the IMO website will know that work has been on-going since 2005 to improve and update the site, making it easier to use and more attractive for visitors. The main facelift to the site happened last August, but minor improvements have continued since.
Much as before, the homepage still has recent news on it, and links to all the key elements about the IMO, including its history, commissions, WGN and other publications, the online ‘Who is Who’ listing, practical notes on the various observing techniques, and the current year’s Shower Calendar in English and several other major languages. Data archives are accessible this way too, including extracts from the VMDB back to 1984, and fireball data from 1993-1996.
A significant new segment has recently been added, entitled ‘Ongoing Projects‘. The idea of this is to help publicise meteor-related projects, not just those run officially by the IMO, to encourage people to contribute to such existing projects or even start new ones. The homepage at http://www.imo.net/projects provides one-paragraph summaries of the projects, with links to contacts or where more information can be found. Currently, the projects include the IMO’s ‘Meteor Observing Handbook’, the Meteor Beliefs Project and the Unified Meteor Database. Both the latter two have further information elsewhere on the IMO site. The idea is that the various notes will be updated regularly, as fresh information becomes available, provided by the project organizers.
Additional projects are needed to help keep the pages fresh and alive, so whether you are an amateur or a professional, if you are working on something meteoric yourself, contact me to claim your own spot. Please include a short description of your project (one paragraph) to go on the homepage, and optionally a more elaborate explanation that could be linked from it. You should also provide an e-mail address, so anyone interested in your project can contact you.
If you have any comments or suggestions for further improvements to the website, don’t hesitate to contact me!
To conclude, I’d like to thank our Vice-President Alastair McBeath for his help and support.
You saw something bright and fast? Like a huge shooting star? Report it: it may be a fireball. 
You counted meteors last night? Share your results with us! 
You took a photo of a meteor or fireball? You have a screenshot of your cam? Share it with us! 
You caught a meteor or fireball on video? Share your video with us!