IAU: Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
The Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams (CBAT) operates at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (specifically under the SAO umbrella), under the auspices of Commission 6 of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and is a nonprofit organization, with principal funding coming from subscriptions to the various services offered by the Bureau, and (during 2008-2010) also from the U.S. National Science Foundation. The CBAT is operated on computers generously donated by the Tamkin Foundation.The CBAT is responsible for the dissemination of information on transient astronomical events and various IAU news including the announcement of designations and names of various celestial objects -- via the IAU Circulars (IAUCs), a series of printed-postcard-sized announcements issued at irregular intervals as necessary in both printed and electronic form, and (as of 2002 Dec. 20) also via the electronic-only Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams (CBETs). The CBAT is the official worldwide clearinghouse for new discoveries of comets, solar-system satellites, novae, supernovae, and other transient astronomical events. It aims to serve the astronomical community in the spirit of the mandate of the Smithsonian Institution: to aid in the increase and diffusion of knowledge; as such, together with its sister projects (the Minor Planet Center and the International Comet Quarterly), the CBAT serves to lead the SAO in this mandate in terms of public visibility.
Services of the CBAT
- Astronomical headlines from recent CBAT publications.
- CBAT publications and services.
- Subscription information.
- On-line IAUCs. [the hundred-or-so most
recent IAUCs are available only to subscribers, while many issues before
IAUC 2700 (1974 Sept. 20) are unavailable in any form yet (though most
of these should be available by late 2009).]
- Scans of older IAUCs
- all IAUCs from 1920-1930 currently available
- scans of (or links to) all Harvard Observatory circulars/bulletins from 1895-1920
- Index of item titles on IAUCs 1-8000 [warning: large file!].
- Scans of older IAUCs
- On-line CBETs. [CBETs 1-1199 freely available; CBETs 1200+ available to subscribers only.]
- Topical indices to recent IAUCs and CBETs:
- Web access to the computer services.
- Search the CBAT site.
Information for CBAT contributors
- How to report a discovery
- What types of discoveries should be reported to the CBAT for possible publication?
- Discovery report form.
- Check your (super)nova suspects for known minor planets.
- How to submit CCD images in support of a discovery.
- Reporting faint, spectroscopically-unconfirmed supernova candidates.
- Unconfirmed objects reported to the CBAT that are in need of confirming observations.
- How to submit a scientific report for possible publication
- How to submit photoelectric photometry or visual magnitude estimates of variable stars and comets for possible publication.
History of the CBAT
The first Central Bureau was formally created in the 1880s in Kiel, Germany, remaining there until World War I when it was moved to Copenhagen Observatory (Denmark), where it essentially remained until the end of 1964 (except for a brief period at Uccle in 1920-1922); the IAU (formed in 1919) adopted the Copenhagen Observatory's Central Bureau as its official Bureau Central des Télégrammes Astronomiques in 1922. On 1965 Jan. 1, the CBAT moved from Copenhagen to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the Harvard College Observatory had been acting as the western hemisphere's astronomy information center also since 1883. More in-depth CBAT history is provided on a separate webpage.Other Helpful Information
- Astronomical headlines from recent circulars.
- Index to the CBAT/MPC/ICQ pages.
- The Edgar Wilson Award, an award for amateur comet discoverers.
- Ephemerides and orbital elements for comets, NEOs, distant objects and bright minor planets.
- Various lists and plots.
- Press Information Sheets
- List of new features on these pages.
- Links to other IAU-related sites are now accessible from the International Astronomical Union's website.
- Notices concerning power outages and downtimes for the CBAT/MPC computers (meaning web and e-mail-access downtime).
- ALERT! We have introduced additional screening software to block spam e-mail, due to its prolific increase; it is strongly recommended that those sending e-mail to the CBAT (or ICQ or MPC) remove ALL html-encoded text, as we cannot read such text easily (we do not use web browsers for reading e-mail) and such text may be deleted by our anti-spam software. (This means: send plain ASCII text *only*, *not* plain ASCII text plus html-encoded text in same message. The vast majority of CBAT contributors have no problem sending ASCII-only e-mail with contributed observations, so HTML-encoding is a natural place to attack SPAM e-mail since the vast majority of SPAM has html-encoding.)
- Credits (and awards) and a user-feedback form.
