sci.astro.research

Please consider sending your postings on topics in astronomy and
astrophysics to sci.astro.research!

sci.astro.research is a moderated newsgroup for the discussion of
astronomy and astrophysics. It is intended that the group should be
`lightly' moderated, bearing the same relation to sci.astro as
sci.physics.research does to sci.physics. Only postings which very
obviously contravene the moderation principles set out in the charter,
which can be found at http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/sar/charter.html , (by
being excessively irrelevant to research in astronomy or astrophysics,
speculative in content, or abusive) will be rejected, and if this
happens the poster will be notified by e-mail. Commercial
advertisements are not permitted by the charter. Commercial (or other)
postings which in the moderator's opinion constitute spam will be
rejected without notification, and a complaint will be sent to the
originator's ISP. Any other content which would be on-topic in
sci.astro should be expected to be accepted for sci.astro.research. In
this way it is hoped to provide a high signal-to-noise forum for the
discussion of astronomical topics.

Prospective posters should consult the sci.astro FAQ
(http://sciastro.astronomy.net/) and if appropriate relevant sections
of the physics and relativity FAQs
(http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/faq.html ;
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/relativity.html) before posting
general questions. They should also consider whether
sci.astro.research is the most appropriate group for their posting;
possible alternatives include

sci.astro -- for more general discussions
sci.astro.amateur -- particularly for discussions of amateur equipment
and suppliers; discussions and questions about amateur
observations are welcome on sci.astro.research.
sci.astro.fits -- for discussions related to the FITS data format and
its applications.
sci.astro.seti -- for discussions of the Search for ExtraTerrestrial
Intelligence.
sci.physics, sci.physics.relativity, sci.physics.research -- for
discussions which are primarily about physics rather than
astrophysics.

The moderators will set followups to one of these groups if it appears
that discussion would be more usefully conducted there. Cross-postings
between sci.astro.research and other groups are unlikely to be
appropriate, and if they are accepted the moderators are likely to set
followups away from sci.astro.research. Note that followups for *this*
announcement are set to sci.astro only.

Some people have trouble posting to moderated newsgroups, usually
because of a misconfiguration on the part of their ISP. If you post to
s.a.r. and the posting reaches the moderators, your post will either
appear on the group or you'll get a rejection message. If neither
happens, your posting has probably gone astray. As an alternative, you
can submit postings directly to the moderation e-mail address
). Please note that, if you
use a spam-blocked or spam-trapped e-mail address, you may not receive
a rejection message. We recommend that posters avoid spam-blocks or
spam-traps when posting to sci.astro.research, and in general we frown
on postings which do not contain a clear and simple means of
contacting their author.

This announcement will be posted to sci.astro.research and other
groups in the sci.astro hierarchy from time to time.

Martin Hardcastle
sci.astro.research moderator