AR HCR1016

Celebrates the 50th anniversary of Arkansas Sky Observatories (ASO), founded in 1971 under the direction of P. Clay Sherrod in central Arkansas

ASO developed one of the first confirmation stations for the Harvard-Smithsonian IAU Minor Planet Center within two years and has conducted nearly 50 years of research on comets, asteroids, novae, and supernovae

ASO has observed and determined orbital data for over 100,000 dangerous Near Earth Objects in collaboration with Harvard, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Tokyo Observatory

Sherrod has conducted more than 10,000 public outreach presentations over 50 years and published 37 books across scientific, fiction, and philosophical topics; asteroid 117736 was named "Sherrod" by the International Astronomical Union

ASO operates multiple observatories, a cellular biological laboratory, a seismic activity facility, and one of Arkansas's most extensive fossil collections entirely through private funding without accepting public money