NOVANET - This is used mainly by professional astronomers for alerts and announcements of results. To subscribe, send a request to Peter Hauschildt at Arizona State University (yeti@asu.edu) who will send information. To post a message for automatic distribution on novanet, send it to nova@nova.la.asu.edu. Despite the impression given in January's Scientific American, subscription requests should NOT be sent to nova@nova.la.asu.edu.
VARSTARS - This is based in Finland and is widely used by European amateurs to exchange data, mainly lists of visual observations. Many of the messages posted here are duplicated on vsnet. To subscribe, send a request to mailserv@lists.funet.fi. The text of the request should read like: "sub varstars Dan Bruton". To unsubscribe, send "unsub varstars". To post a message for automatic distribution on varstars, send it to varstars@nic.funet.fi.
VSNET - This is run from Kyoto University in Japan and is used by a rapidly growing number of amateurs and professionals in Asia, Europe and North America. Because of the large number of messages posted that were simply long lists of random observations, which not everybody wanted, since the beginning of October it has been split into two networks: vsnet-obs for observations, and vsnet- alert for all other messages. A recent addition to vsnet-alert is the Indiana University RoboScope triggers, reporting outbursts of cataclysmic variables with (apparently) no human intervention! To subscribe, send a request to vsnet-admin@kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp. To post a message for automatic distribution, send it to either vsnet-obs@kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp or vsnet- alert@kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp.
Association of Variable Star Observers - AAVSO Email : aavso@aavso.org