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History

image of ver1 of AOP site

The Amateur Observers' Program was first designed to support the NASA Discovery mission Deep Impact. A similar program for technically proficient (semi-pro) amateurs had already been put together, but the DI EPO team recognized that the greater majority of amateurs and general public needed more information. And so the AOP was born.

About the original (version 1) banner:

The starchart and night sky view were generated in Starry Night Pro 4.0. The marked position for Tempel 1 is for July 2005. The two views were exported as images and then edited in Photoshop 7.0 (Deep Impact text and buttons).

About version 2:

In 2007, with the launch of the Dawn spacecraft imminent, the AOP was updated to meet the needs of the Dawn mission. This included updating written content to reflect Dawn requirements, but also removing/replacing the outdated starcharts for Tempel 1 with charts for Vesta and Ceres.

In 2010, content was updated for EPOXI. Again, while some written content was archived, many of the old charts from previous campsigns were replaced.

In 2013, content was updated for the Comet ISON Observing Campaign (CIOC). Outdated charts were removed from the site.

In 2018, the project was rebranded as CACAO -- Comet & Asteroids Collaborative Astronomy Observers. Content was updated to support the comet Wirtanen Campaign being led by the University of Maryland. Although, name could also be Comet & Asteroid Campaigns for All Observers!

 

 

 

Updated: 10-Dec-2018