Welcome to sci.astro.research
SAR Moderator
Welcome to sci.astro.research!
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Table of Contents:
1. Purpose of Newsgroup
2. Moderation Guidelines
3. Submission Guidelines
4. FTP/WWW Archive
5. Feedback
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1. Purpose of Newsgroup.
"...the discussion of astronomy & astrophysics (A&A) research, and the
dissemination of of information related to astronomy & astrophysics
research..." (charter in CFV)
This newsgroup is about research activities in astronomy &
astrophysics, open not only to the professional researchers, but to
amateurs that are carrying out (or would like to start) research
programs (e.g. variable star observations) as well. What we hope this
newsgroup will do is provide rapid communication within the Usenet
community of research activities in A&A.
Through Mosaic & the World-Wide Web (WWW) there now exists
a great deal of information available for the research astronomer, and
the purpose of this newsgroup is not be redundant with with those
services. Thus, this newsgroup will probably stress the quasi-interactive
aspects of Usenet rather than the archival aspects of the WWW. However,
articles posted to this newsgroup will be archived (see below).
Here are some examples of the kind of topics that would be appropriate
for posting to s.a.r:
- inquiries or discussions about specific current research or
research already in the literature.
- research-related topics, such as observing equipment,
computational techniques & software (e.g. algorithms,
simulatons, IRAF, AIPS, etc.), catalogs, texts, journals,
references, etc.
- observations of astrophysical phenomena of interest to
researchers. This would include [super]novae, variable stars,
galactic sources, extragalactic sources, planetary astronomy,
etc. Observations, of course, need a certain amount of
documentation to be useful. See the discussion on "Submission
Guidelines" for details. Alerts regarding [super]novae are also
quite valuable. Note that these observations will be supplied
on an "as is" basis (with a disclaimer attached to that effect),
but may be checked for "plausibility" (e.g., yes, Leo is visible
this time of year, etc.), but beyond that a reader's use of these
observations is strictly "meo periculo" (see below).
- announcements of recent manuscripts submitted to
journals, or collections of such publications available as
preprints. For those of you familiar with the Sissa and LANL
preprint services, or with the NRAO (un)RAP sheets, those
would be good examples. This group will not contain entire
articles, but at least their abstracts, and information as
to where to get complete articles.
- announcements of future conferences & workshops, proposal or
grant announcments of opportunity.
- general scientific news relevant to astronomy & astrophysics
research.
Note that this list of posting subjects is not a complete description
of subjects appropriate to this newsgroup. For the purposes of
encouraging use of this newsgroup, the moderator takes the view
"when in doubt, post" - when there is a plausible belief that the
subject would be relevant to A&A research.
2. Moderation Guidelines.
The central theme for the moderation of this newsgroup will be
the relevancy to the astronomical research community.
Particular attention will be paid by the moderator to include
contributions by amateur and professional alike, but requiring that posts
be relevant to astronomy/astrophysics research issues.
The moderator will have relatively broad powers to determine
postings that are appropriate for the newsgroup. However, there
are some basic principles that the moderator will adhere to:
- Postings will be judged on their relevancy to scientific
research in astronomy and astrophysics. For example,
inquiries such as "what are AM Her stars and can one
make useful optical observations of them?" are likely
to be deemed within the realm of this newsgroup, while
those such as "will the sun blow up one day?" are likely
to be redirected to sci.astro. The criterion is *not*
the credentials of the author (contributions by
amateurs are encouraged), but the relevance of the
post to research issues.
- Controversial topics and issues in research can be
addressed, provided that they are discussed with
scientific rigor and rationale; "because I say so"
speculations will be redirected to sci.astro.
- "Unverified" astronomical observations will be posted with
a disclaimer regarding the reliability of the observation.
A verified observation is defined as one that has been
checked and is certified for accuracy by the supporting
institution (eg. bulletin from an observatory, research
organization, etc.) It is hoped that posts of the
unverified observations will serve as a source for
other observers for further investigation or for
astronomical organizations as a source of additional
data for research programs, subject to their *own*
verification.
- Posters that wish to keep their email address confidential may
indicate this in direct correspondence with the moderator.
- Personal attacks, crossposts irrelevant to astrophysics/
astronomy research, commercial advertisements (beyond new
product announcements), political discussions, or posts originating
from addresses that cannot receive e-mail will be rejected.
- The moderator welcomes any inquiries by readers concerning
their submissions. The moderator may ask that long
threads conducted by a few parties on the details of a subject
be redirected to e-mail, consistent with Usenet netiquette.
3. Submission Guidelines.
- include e-mail address, except when confidentiality has been
arranged with the moderator.
- Attempt brevity...!
- minimize the amount of included text in followups.
- please use keywords. This will help the moderator organize the
archive, and will help fellow readers find relevant posts. The
preferred keyword set is a modified version of the the 1993
ApJ Annual Subject Index keywords. Multiple keywords are allowed.
Select the keyword(s) for your posting from the following:
astrometry atlases catalogs comets
cosmology Earth galaxies (the) Galaxy
gamma_rays gravitation infrared instrumentation
ISM methods (M)HD observation
planets radio relativity solar_system
spectroscopy stars Sun surveys
techniques telescopes theory ultraviolet
X_rays misc
Note that some of these keywords encompass huge subject areas; the
subcatagories can be found in the ApJ index. For now, just choose
the keywords above that are closest to your post's subject.
- observations need to contain at least the "Who, What, When, Where"
of the observation: Who, the observer; What, the object; When,
the time of the observation (UT, JD, whatever is appropriate);
Where, the instrument(s) used for the observation. Please also
include details about the instrument (e.g. filters, etc.) that are
important for the observation.
- a digest of articles may be periodically posted to the unmoderated
newsgroup sci.astro.
4. FTP/WWW Archive
An anonymous ftp archive for sci.astro.research is located at
ssl.msfc.nasa.gov under the directory [pub.astres] (VMS system).
A current copy of the s.a.r Welcome is also available there. A Mosaic
homepage for s.a.r is currently being developed and should be available on
WWW in the second half of May 1994.
5. The moderator welcomes feedback as to how to make this newsgroup a more
effective tool for the astronomical research community. Please address
inquiries to:
astres-...@pecos.msfc.nasa.gov
Thanks for reading (and contributing to) sci.astro.research.