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Subscription Information

Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams & Minor Planet Center

Postal Address:
   Mail Stop 18,
   Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory,
   60 Garden Street,
   Cambridge, MA  02138
   U.S.A.

Telephone 617-495-7281  (Emergency use only)
Fax 617-495-7231                E-mail IAUSUBS@CFA.HARVARD.EDU

We cannot currently accept credit cards. We hope to restore credit card payment (and the secure on-line ordering form) shortly.

You may ask general subscription questions via the feedback form.

The Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams and the Minor Planet Center are services of the International Astronomical Union. The former issues the IAU Circulars (IAUCs), a series of postcard notices giving information about astronomical phenomena requiring prompt dissemination, particularly novae, supernovae, comets, and unusual minor planets; the CBAT also now issues the Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams, an e-mailed source of such information. More complete information on comets and minor planets is published in the Minor Planet Circulars (abbreviated MPCs and also known as Minor Planets and Comets), which are issued by the Minor Planet Center, generally in monthly batches. The Central Bureau's Telegram service was discontinued in 1993 (though, as noted above, an "Electronic Telegram" service was begun in late 2002).

The organizations also operate a Computer Service (CS), which allows subscribers to read the complete IAUCs at the CBAT website as soon as they are prepared.
The Minor Planet Center issues Minor Planet Electronic Circulars in electronic form only; these MPECs are available via the CS and via electronic mail (e-mail).
Subscribers to the CS may also receive the IAUCs by electronic mail; there is no additional charge for this service, but it should be noted that e-mail is not 100-percent reliable and issues that go astray can not be retransmitted (subscribers may use the IAUMAIL service to e-mail missing circulars to themselves).
It is to be noted that the TeX-generated printed and electronic versions are the official versions of the IAUCs, not the electronic ASCII versions.
An Extended Computer Service (ECS) is also available, allowing subscribers to extract astrometric data on specific comets and minor planets, and to extract data files associated with each batch of MPCs; ECS subscribers must also subscribe to the MPCs and/or the regular CS.
Note that MPCs are distributed outside North America by surface mail; airmail delivery of MPCs is available for an additional charge of US$7.50 per month.

The Catalogue of Cometary Orbits (CCO) is available for US$40.00 postpaid (add US$20.00 for airmail delivery outside North America). The main part of the CCO can be supplied by e-mail for US$80.00.

Subscriptions

Paid subscriptions for the IAUCs, MPCs, CS and ECS are entered on a monthly basis, for a minimum of six and a maximum of twelve months. It is no longer necessary, as it was in the past, for a Computer Service (CS) subscriber to subscribe also to the printed IAUCs and/or MPCs.

There are two types of account: regular (invoiced) and special (non-invoiced).

Regular accounts are intended for institutions and libraries who require a paper trail. Renewal invoices for the IAUCs, MPCs, CS and ECS are issued to regular subscribers four months before a subscription is due to expire (and, if necessary, a second and final invoice is issued one month prior to when the un-renewed subscription lapses).
Special accounts do not receive invoices and may subscribe at a rate which (except for the ECS) is generally about 40-percent less than the regular (invoiced) rate.
- Special subscribers to printed Circulars can keep track of their accounts from the last four digits of the number on the address label. For example, 0508 indicates that the subscription will expire at the end of August 2005.
For both regular and special accounts:
- To ensure no interruption of service, subscribers should plan to renew by the end of the preceding month.
- Payment should reach us at least three business days before the end of the month in which the account expires.
- If failure to renew in time results in an interruption of service, requests for missing issues should be made as a separate transaction and at the regular rate.
- A subscriber's account status is now displayed in the subject lines of e-mailed IAUCs, CBETs and MPECs.
  The format of the displayed information is "[AAAAA-YYYY/MM*-TL]", where:
  - AAAAA is the account number;
  - YYYY/MM is the expiry date (end of the stated month);
  - * is displayed if there is a payment pending;
  - T is the type of account (R = regular, S = special, F = free);
  - L is the license type (1 = type 1, 2 = type 2, ..., 9 = type 9, A = type 10, B = type 11, C = type 12).

Note that if you are subscribing to more than one service (e.g., MPCs and CS), you cannot have different expiry dates for the two parts of your subscription. Both services must expire at the same time.

Subscriptions are an important source of income to help keep our offices running. We are very appreciative to all paying subscribers. Because the number of our paying subscribers has dropped by about a third over the first decade of the World Wide Web era (while the readership of our Circulars has gone way up!), we also ask that groups (with multiple readers of the Circulars) who wish to subscribe will fairly pay additional amounts as recommended below for additional readers. Donations are also very welcome (and much needed!), whether as additional payments to regular subscription payments or as special donations outside of subscriptions.

As a special service to astronomers who have little or no available finances for such subscriptions, particularly those who contribute useful observations to the CBAT/MPC on a regular or semi-regular basis, we sometimes issue non-paying subscriptions upon request.

Enquiries

When enquiring about their accounts:

subscribers are kindly requested to do so:
- by the feedback form.
- by e-mail (to iausubs@cfa.harvard.edu only),
- by mail;
subscribers are requested to telephone only in an emergency;
subscribers should mention their Account Nos., (the initial five-figure group on their address labels or invoices).

Checks should be in U.S. dollars (and drawn on a U.S. bank) and can be made payable either to the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams or to the Minor Planet Center.

Current Subscription Rates

In the table below, "CS" (Computer Service) means computer access to the MPECs and the IAUCs via the Web (and both publications plus CBETs can be e-mailed to the CS subscriber). The terms "MPC" and "IAUC" below refer to printed Minor Planet Circulars and to printed IAU Circulars, respectively, only. Note also the section below on institutional rates: Any subscriber who allows more than four readers to have access to the electronic MPECs and/or IAUCs should subscribe at a fair higher rate (the rates tabulated below are for license type 1 accounts [see below for definitions of license type]).

The regular (invoiced) rates in US$, with some examples of combinations, are as follows:

                                                                          MPC+
Months   MPC   MPC by air   CS      IAUC   MPC+IAUC   IAUC+CS  MPC+CS   IAUC+CS
  1     22.50    30.00     10.00    15.00    37.50     25.00    32.50    47.50
  6    135.00   180.00     60.00    90.00   225.00    150.00   195.00   285.00
 12    270.00   360.00    120.00   180.00   450.00    300.00   390.00   570.00

The special (uninvoiced) rates in US$, with some examples of combinations, are as follows:

                                                                          MPC+
Months   MPC   MPC by air   CS      IAUC   MPC+IAUC   IAUC+CS  MPC+CS   IAUC+CS
  1     14.50    22.00      6.00     9.00    23.50     15.00    20.50    29.50
  6     87.00   132.00     36.00    54.00   141.00     90.00   123.00   177.00
 12    174.00   264.00     72.00   108.00   282.00    180.00   246.00   354.00

The following ECS subscription rates are effective for both regular and special subscribers: $25.00/month; $150.00/6 months; $300.00/12 months. Note that MPCs are distributed outside North America by surface mail; airmail delivery of MPCs is available for an additional charge of $7.50 per month.

Institutional Rates

Groups who wish to subscribe to the electronic MPECs and/or IAUCs should subscribe at a fair higher rate (the rates tabulated above are for individuals). A licensing system has been implemented to ease the management of institutional rates. An individual license is type 1, intended for 1 to 4 readers. Other license types, listed below, are intended for more readers. A license type of N multiplies the cost of the CS by N (e.g., a type 4 license costs 4x as much as the cost quoted in the table above).

  License type     # readers       License type     # readers
      1             1 -   4            7            91 - 130
      2             5 -  10            8           131 - 180
      3            11 -  20            9           181 - 250
      4            21 -  30           10           251 - 320
      5            31 -  60           11           321 - 400
      6            61 -  90           12           401 -

Institutions, in particular, are asked to request the appropriate license type when starting or renewing subscriptions.

Note that adjusting a license type for an existing subscription will cause the expiry date for that account to change.

For institutions that have severe financial problems for subscriptions such as this, some compromise can be worked out with the CBAT/MPC (upon request).

CBAT MPC ICQ