We are happy to announce on the release of a new notifications service called "AstroNotes", which serves for posting
messages that are of interest to the astronomical community. Object-related messages are tightly connected with the
objects, thus searchable by object details (coordinates, name etc...). All AstroNotes are indexed on the ADS and are
citable.
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The Transient Name Server (TNS) is the official IAU mechanism to announce and name newly discovered transients,
and is operating since 2016. A major goal of this activity is to allow the community to easily connect
object names with precise information about these objects, in particular, their coordinates. The TNS issues
automatic discovery and classification reports for objects that are distributed to registered users and are
indexed on the ADS.
In recent months we have identified a need for an expanded service providing a channel to announce to
the community messages covering a broader range of subjects. To answer this need, we have launched the
TNS AstroNotes service. This service allows all registered users to distribute notifications regarding a broad
range of astrophysical topics to those TNS users that choose to subscribe to the AstroNotes service.
These include in particular:
1. Notes about discovery or classification of objects that contain more elaborate information than the automated TNS
notifications, including in particular notifications about re-classification of objects.
2. Notes providing additional data or analysis of transients.
3. Notifications about new astrophysical tools and utilities.
4. Notifications about new surveys or new observing campaigns.
5. General notifications of interest to the community.
The AstroNotes system is built to automatically connect notes to the related objects, thus making it possible to search
for information about an object by coordinates, name, type and more.
All AstroNotes are public, are provided free of charge to post and to read and are indexed on the ADS and citable.
All registered TNS users can submit AstroNotes, as long as they comply with general ethical standards for
scientific publications (including proper credit via references), with applicable laws, and their contents
are scientifically relevant to the TNS community.
We have initially subscribed all TNS users to this service in order to distribute this notification. If you would
prefer to not receive any additional AstroNotes, or to select which notifications to receive and how often,
just login to the TNS, go to "My Account", scroll down to the "AstroNotes notifications" box and change
your preferences accordingly.
We hope you find this service useful. Please send comments or requests to tns AT weizmann.ac.il.
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