The Astronomer's Telegram

The Astronomer's Telegram (ATel) is an internet service for quickly disseminating information about events relevant for astronomers.[1] Examples include gamma-ray bursts,[2][3] microlenses, supernovae, novae, or X-ray transients, but there are no restrictions on content matter.

The Astronomer's Telegram was launched on 17 December 1997 by Robert E. Rutledge[4][5] with the goal of rapidly (<1 s) sharing information of interest to astronomers. Telegrams are sent out daily by email, but especially time sensitive events can be transmitted instantly.[6] Since 2013, information is also broadcast over Twitter and Facebook.

To publish, astronomers request credentials. Credentials are issued to professional astronomers and graduate students, after verification by personal contact.[5] Once credentials have been supplied and telegrams authorized, astronomers can publish telegrams directly, with no further editing.[7]

As of March 2015, over 7000 telegrams have been published.

History

While working at Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrische Physik in Garching, Bob Rutledge began the site after his experience in using the web in 1995-6 as an aid in the discovery and characterization (by multiple scientists working informally and collaboratively) of the Bursting Pulsar, GRO J1744-28. Operations began in earnest at the department of astronomy of UC Berkeley where Rutledge was a visiting post-doctoral scholar with Prof. Lars Bildsten.

Current operations

The Astronomer's Telegram currently has an editor in chief, an editor and a co-editor. The ATel service is free, both for publishers and readers of the telegrams. Astronomer's Telegram's editors remind users to report discoveries of supernovae or comets to the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams as well.

References

  1. ↑ Michael J. Way; Jeffrey D. Scargle; Kamal M. Ali; Ashok N. Srivastava (29 March 2012). Advances in Machine Learning and Data Mining for Astronomy. CRC Press. pp. 50–. ISBN 978-1-4398-4173-0.
  2. ↑ Gamma signature, Astronomer's Telegram cast light on dazzling blazar,Symmetry, 30 April 2009
  3. ↑ Josep M. Paredes; Olaf Reimer; Diego F. Torres (12 November 2007). The Multi-Messenger Approach to High-Energy Gamma-Ray Sources: Third Workshop on the Nature of Unidentified High-Energy Sources. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 5–. ISBN 978-1-4020-6117-2.
  4. ↑ Mark R. Kidger; I. Pérez-Fournon; Francisco Sánchez (1999). Internet Resources for Professional Astronomy: Proceedings of the IX Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics. CUP Archive. pp. 24–. ISBN 978-0-521-66308-3.
  5. 1 2 Fox, Derek B. "A Transient Astronomy "Free for All" at The Astronomer’s Telegram". Caltech. VO Events Meeting. Archived from the original (ppt) on 2014-08-08. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  6. ↑ Rutledge, Robert E. (1 June 1998). "The Astronomer's Telegram: A Web‐based Short‐Notice Publication System for the Professional Astronomical Community". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 110 (748): 754–756. arXiv:astro-ph/9802256. Bibcode:1998PASP..110..754R. doi:10.1086/316184.
  7. ↑ "Policies". Astronomer's Telegram. Retrieved 8 May 2013.

External links


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