For reporting and commenting upon new observations of astronomical transients by the professional astrophysics community.

• ATel 1603: Continuing X-ray Emission of Nova Vul 2007

  We report a new observation of Nova Vul 2007 (S. Nakano, IAUC 8861) obtained by the Swift X-ray Telescope (XRT) on 2008 June 18. The nova was detected at count rate of 0.023 count/s, representing a decline by a factor of 3 compared with Swift XRT observations obtained during 2007 November-December, and by about 50% compared with the previous observation obtained on 2007 December 27. ...

• ATel 1602: Confirmation of a recent optical nova candidate in M 31 and H-alpha identification of seven M 31 novae

  We report the confirmation of a nova candidate in M 31 recently reported to us by K. Hornoch. We detected this object with an R magnitude of 18.7 in a 12x60s stacked R filter CCD image obtained on 2008 June 30.43 with the robotic 60cm telescope with an E2V CCD (2kx2k) of the Livermore Optical Transient Imaging System (Super-LOTIS, located at Steward Observatory, Kitt Peak, Arizona, USA). ...

• ATel 1601: Possible near-infrared counterpart to the Galactic transient 1RXH J173523.7-354013

  Following the recent announcement of an X-ray and optical outburst from a previously unknown Galactic transient possibly associated with 1RXH J173523.7-354013 (Israel et al. ...

• ATel 1600: A Transient 7.92s X-ray Pulsar in the SMC (SXP 7.92)

  Observations of the Small Magellanic Cloud with the Proportional Counter Array on board the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer have shown the presence of a pulsar with a period of 7.92 s during three consecutive observations performed on 2008-06-13, 2008-06-20, and 2008-06-28 with durations of 10ks in all cases. ...

• ATel 1599: Swift/BAT reports increased activity from the black hole candidate Swift J1753.5-0127

  The Swift/BAT hard X-ray transient monitor reports increased activity in the 15-50 keV band for the black hole candidate Swift J1753.5-0127. Starting on about June 19, 2008 (MJD 54636), the source has been increasing in intensity from an average rate of 0.015 cts/cm2/sec (65 mcrab) in the 15-50 keV energy band to a current daily average level of (0.024 ± 0.003) cts/cm2/sec (105 mcrab). ...

• ATel 1598: Swift Observations of SN 2008cg

  The Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) and X-Ray Telescope (XRT) on board the Swift satellite observed the Type IIn supernova 2008cg (CBET #1366, #1420, ATel #1594) on 2008-07-02.00 UT. ...

• ATel 1597: VLBI observations of the radio counterpart of IGR J20187+4041/2MASX J20183871+4041003 in the error box of the gamma-ray source AGL2021+4029/3EG J2020+4017

  We report on European VLBI Network (EVN) observations of 2MASX J20183871+4041003, which was earlier detected with the VLA by Dubner et al. (ATel#1518). ...

Yahoo! News Search Results for "astronomy" "astronomical"

• Astronomy Show (WCTV Tallahassee)

  Some local children got a chance to gaze upon the stars early today.

• Stars in the park (Fayetteville Free Weekly)

  The Sugar Creek Astronomical Society will present an astronomy program and provide high-powered telescopes for visitors to gaze at night sky at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at Hobbs State Park?s Hidden Diversity Trail parking lot on Townsend Ridge Road.

• Asteroid And Comet Threat Is A Challenge To Mankind (Bernama)

  ST. PETERSBURG, July 5 (Bernama) -- The asteroid and comet threat is a real challenge to mankind in the 21st century, and it is described as "space terrorism", Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reported Saturday quoting the Director of the Institute of Applied Astronomy Andrei Fenkelshtein, as saying.

• Annual astronomy club party attracts families, stargazing enthusiasts (The Daily Texan)

  The rings around Saturn, moons that orbit Jupiter and various constellations were a little closer to Earth for a crowd of families and astronomy enthusiasts that sat on St. Stephen's Episcopal School's athletics field Saturday night. The local Episcopal school and the Austin Astronomical Society hosts Austin Under the Stars, a once-a-year star observation party.

• Physics names winners and losers (BBC News)

  UK physics and astronomy will spend nearly £2bn in the next three years, but some programmes face cuts.

• 'Astronomy without borders' on show in China (EurekAlert!)

  "We're now in the age of astronomy without borders," said Dr Tasso Tzioumis of CSIRO's Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF). "From a single operations centre we can make huge streams of precisely time-linked data flow simultaneously between several countries, at gigabits per second."

• Astronomy Program, Tours Slated At Hobbs (The Morning News)

  An astronomy program and guided trail tours highlight the weekend at Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area east of Rogers.