Wed, 11/09/2022 - 17:05
People were talking about the SN 1987A follow-ups at the annual meeting. It got me wondering: how did the alert notices get distributed back then, before most people had email? Were there telegrams sent out? Did HQ know which people could do something and call them on the phone? I could see letters being used for things that were less urgent for follow-up, but I just got curious about how people dealt with rapid transients needing attention within a day.
Hi Tom,
We are so used today to instant notification, but that is not how it was, and nobody expected it! Also, remember that today we know about many more types of transients than we did 40-50 years ago when the Alert Notices began, so there were not nearly as many discoveries that needed instant attention.
AAVSO Alert Notices were free (as they are today) and were sent through the postal mail. Subscribers sent AAVSO HQ a supply of SASEs (self-addressed stamped envelopes; non-US subscribers sent US$ or postal coupons worth 50 cents each). When we had to issue an Alert Notice, we typed it onto a plastic stencil, put it on the ink duplicator - a messy job - and printed enough copies (later on when copiers became affordable, we typed it on a sheet of paper and made copies; we could also include charts, which was great). We then sent the paper copies in the SASEs to the observers. When a subscriber was running low on SASEs, we included a slip of paper that said, e.g., "you have 2 SASEs left; please send more".
If something was very urgent - for example, a possible nova that needed confirming - we would telephone a few observers who were experienced and lived in the appropriate part of the world to ask them to check and let us know. We did not use telegrams.
Thanks for asking!
Good observing,
Elizabeth
Thanks, Elizabeth.