[vsnet-chat 635] Re: ISN news

[Taichi Kato <tkato>]

Dear ISN members, the CBAT members, and SNe enthusiasts,

   I appreciate the efforts of the ISN staff, and at least welcome they
continue (even in restricted form) providing images of suspect SNe.

   1) Regarding images of suspect SNe on-line:

   First to mention, I still see no problem with publicly posting possible
SNe images (I perfectly agree with Geltner), as long as the ISN staff can
reach the server access log to avoid unscrupulous purposes.  If it isn't
the case, the choice of the new ISN Web feature may be acceptable from
the side of regular subscribers.  However, it should be noted potential
confirmatory observers may not be always on the usual subscription list;
such observer may be a visiting astronomer who can spend little time in
the annoying process of newly obtaining a password, or who may too remote
to access the Web directly (some observatories restrict the internet usage
to visiting astronomers).  Another solution may be to construct an automatic
e-mail responding service.  Potentially interested observers are publicly
notified of the presence of a new object (using some alert networks, allowing
redistribution of messages), if an observer is interested, he or she simply
have to send a request e-mail to some specific e-mail address, which then
returns some uuencoded image of the object.  The sender of the mail can be
identified, and the request can be easily logged.  Remote observers who
have no direct access to the Web can also reach the information.  What about
this idea?

   2) joining form, 3) discovery form: nothing to comment on.

   4) ISN mailing lists

   The idea of creating isn-alert and isn-chat may be appreciated, depending
on the philosophy of the ISN.  The "emulated" lists, VSNET, have the same
nomenclature, but we have a philosophy to make _everything_ open to the
public worth notifying.  While responsibility to provide adequate follow-up
information accompanies those who make alerts (true or false), the same
responsibility applies to the public who share and appreciate the information.
This is our public (if not shown explicitly) rule.  This is the point
the ISN proposal seems to be a bit different from the VSNET custom, despite
its structural similarity.  I think the newly suggested feature may be
another option for this kind of mailing lists, but I hope the ISN not to
become a "too closed community", from which potential researchers may remain
unnotified.

   I have another fear of the fate of "unconfirmed" suspects, which
regretable condition quite easily occurs due to the interference by the
Moon, the proximity to the Sun, or by local weather conditions.  Even if the
objects may have faded beyond the detectability of most amatuer's instruments,
there may be a chance more powerful instruments may save.  I have seen
similar occasions in some novae, which were failed to be confirmed at the
time of discovery, but were recovered later by powerful instruments,
sometimes even by those who are "chance" astronomers who took the field
for other purposes.  If the original information was made open at earlier
time, these objects might have been followed in more adequate way.
The suggested new features of the ISN lists and Web seem to confine such
unconfirmed information within the list, which feature may eliminate the
possibility of "chance rediscovery" or chance identification (e.g. as a new
variable star, or as an unknown minor planet -- researcher of these
categories of objects are not always interested in joining SN-dedicated
lists).  I believe the public availability is essential.  If reasons exist
to do otherwise, I would recommend the ISN to publish in some manner the
record of these unconfirmed objects (or images) for the potential future
users.

Best regards,
Taichi Kato

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