http://spacewatch.lpl.arizona.edu
The author of this page, Robert S. McMillan, is an assistant research scientist at the University of Arizona, and one of the 1980 founders of Spacewatch, the group that studies asteroids and comets from the Lunar and Planetary Lab at the Kitt Peak Observatory, part of the University of Arizona.
McMillan received his PhD from University of Texas in 1977, and has written extensively in scholarly journals, as well as for the publication Nature. In addition he is author of several articles in The Encyclopedia of Planetary Science.
As associate research scientist, he oversees PhD students from the University of Arizona Department of Planetary Studies as well as serves as the head of the Spacewatch program. He was involved through NASA on Pioneer II spacecraft.
Other members of the project listed are all PhD researchers from the University of Arizona, with extensive listings of publications.
The .edu domain signifies this pages link with education. In this case, it is the University of Arizona, an accredited university. Spacewatch is part of the Lunar and Planetary Lab of Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona, which operates 16 high-powered, optical telescopes.
The funding for the project is from various non-commercial sources including NASA, US Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the National Science Foundation.
The site provides links to many of its funding sources, as well as to an e-mail address of Dr. McMillan and others who are listed in the site.
The site provides links to many .edu and .gov sites including NASA and other observatories. Pages to which it links provide information the links received from this site, so research conducted through Spacewatch is part of their information.
In a FAQ portion of the site, the author says he cannot provide links to outside sites without thorough investigation.
The PBS site NOVA, as well as NASA provides links to this site. Both provide links that confirm information they contain.
The FAQ site of Spacewatch says other sites may provide links to this page, but I was unable to find any.
World Book Encyclopedia (2003) lists Kitt Peak National Observatory as one of three observatories that are part of the astronomy research centers of the United States called the National Optical Astronomy Observatories. According to World Book, NOAO is the major provider of major research facilities for astronomers. It says Kitt, with its 16 optical telescopes, each year allows between 300 and 400 U.S. and foreign astronomers to use the facilities of the largest collection of telescopes in the world.
Encyclopedia Britannica (2003) relates that Kitt Observatory was funded by the National Science Foundation in 1958. Additionally, the University of Arizona, which owns the observatory and of which Spacewatch is a part, is considered a center of astronomical research.
The main page of Spacewatch was updated March 3, 2003. Other pages within the site have other updates, but all within the past six months.
Because a major portion of the site is dedicated to announcing discoveries Spacewatch has observed, it is somewhat difficult to gauge the accuracy. They say they made the discovery, and provide no outside validation to these discoveries. However, information about these discoveries is also contained on the NASA pages, which gives credibility to the claims.
There are no obvious grammatical or typographical errors on the page.
The page seems fairly straightforward in its reporting of findings. A narrative details how observations are made and recorded, and the information presented is fairly quantifiable.
Information about the planetary and cosmic discoveries made by Spacewatch are written in scientific terms fairly undecipherable to a layperson. However, all the evidence is supported with photographs taken from the observatory, and given the fact that the discoveries are supported by NASA, I must assume the photographs are undoctored.
Sixth grade teachers with whom I work and who have done extensive studies with their students in this area confirm that Spacewatch of Kitt Observatory provides reliable information.