A new visitor to our solar system is high in Vineyard skies this week. Comet Lulin, despite being barely visible to those with even the keenest vision, has gained attention around the world.

Twelve years ago, Comet Hale-Bopp was the last newly discovered comet that anyone could see overhead. That comet was considerably brighter and easier to spot than our new visitor. In photographs, Comet Lulin has a distinct greenish color, while Hale-Bopp shone both white and blue.

Though the national economy is tanking at a fevered clip, the pace of one industry remains unhurried: Vineyard agriculture.

But then much is timeless — or out of time — about these farm businesses, some fully commercial, others family-run, part-time and increasingly labors of love.

Jim Athearn counts heads of Polled Hereford cattle, Mitch Posen keeps burros to wrangle his ewes and Elizabeth Thompson runs teams of oxen, which help move the hefty stones that form the farm’s centuries-old ramparts.

A farmer and trucker from upstate New York bought the Islander this week for $23,600, placing bid 58 on Ebay Monday for the vessel that ferried Islanders to and from the rest of America for over fifty years.

The auction looked like it might be a humiliating episode with the old girl fetching a starting bid of just $10, with offers crawling to a few thousand in the first days.

But after a flurry of late offers from a total of 19 bidders it finally went to Donald Slovak of Valatie, N.Y.

The Island adoption center run by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) has operated with an average annual loss in excess of $100,000 for the past five years, according to an agency spokesman.

Breaking a silence of several weeks on the operational details of the Vineyard shelter scheduled for closure May 1 by the financially troubled charity, spokesman Brian Adams told the Gazette this week that more than 50 per cent of the operating budget comes over on the boat.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court last week upheld the town of Aquinnah and the Martha’s Vineyard Commission in a key leg of a complicated and long-running property rights case that will ultimately decide whether a large swath of rare coastal heathland along Moshup Trail remains forever wild or is opened up to private development.

He confounds the stereotype of a starving artist. Formally educated and with an impressive career at just over 30, Brian Ditchfield is a dynamo in camouflage, a person whose intellectual heft is couched in a personality free from pretension or posturing. He is a quiet leader among his peers in theatre and the dramatic arts.

The Adult and Community Education Program (ACE MV), which offers classes on a wide range of subjects from taxes to nautical knots, has a new catalogue of 50 courses for the spring session, which begins at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School March 9 and runs until April 16. Classes meet on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings at 6:30 p.m. There will also be single-event seminars.

Vineyard.net, the only locally-owned Island Internet service provider, announced this week that it will continue to operate, despite struggles to stay afloat in the face of rising telecommunication costs and the introduction of broadband services to the Island. In what she said was a difficult decision, owner Kathy Retmier has decided to locate some of the services off-Island. The result will be increased quality of services for Island customers, while keeping the pricing the same as it has been for almost 14 years.

A strong Vineyard contingent turned out to help warm the new House of Blues in Boston last Saturday night. It was an old-home night of sorts, with singer-songwriter Carly Simon making an unscheduled appearance to dance and belt out a number on stage with Dan Akyroyd. Judy Belushi Pisano, a Vineyard Haven resident and widow of John, one of the original Blues Brothers, was a key mover in getting the Vineyard crowd to Boston — and on its feet. But truth to tell, few Islanders need much of an excuse to get off the rock in February.

Four intrepid travelers from the Vineyard met in Atlanta, Ga. and climbed on a plane to cross the Atlantic. Eighteen hours later, after a stop in Dakar, they arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa. They dropped their gear in their rooms, gathered in one room, turned on CNN and watched Obama’s inaugural address. Afterwards they supped on king klip, a delicious South Africa fish and tried South African beer and wine. A very civilized and relaxing evening as we figured our birding and game safari in Namibia and Botswana would not be so mellow. Little did we know.