"According to a Reuter telegram from Rome, the Italian postal authorities have examined a scheme submitted by an engineer, named Piscicelli, for the establishment of an electric postal service. It is proposed, by means of this system, to transmit letters in aluminium boxes, travelling along overhead wires at the rate of 400 kilometres per hour. A letter could thus be sent from Rome to Naples in 25 minutes, and from Rome to Paris in 5 hours." (Nature, 18 Sep 1902)
We compiled the first edition of the RGO email directory in 1988, prompted by a query from Paul Jorden, who wanted to email Lick Observatory. Email was much less friendly then; typical line speeds were 9600 baud (and email could take days to arrive), the syntax needed to propel messages through the gateways between the networks was awful, and the routes were strewn with black holes.
New editions were prepared each year 1987 - 1996 on the basis of replies to a questionnaire mailed to observatories and astronomical institutions worldwide. Each edition required about 50 man-hours of effort.
By 1998, the directory included ~ 14000 entries, and the web interface was receiving about 40000 hits a year.
In 1998, RGO closed, and management of the directory was taken over by Starlink / CCLRC. It was last updated in 2000.
A copy of the directory can be obtained by emailing crb@ing.iac.es
More information below:
The 13th edition of the RGO email directory (May 1995) included 12000 entries, 60% of which were updated or confirmed for this edition (and 85% since 1994). 95% of the users have Internet addresses, with only 4% on BITNET and 1% on DECNET. The 11800 Internet email addresses break down by country as follows (the second column gives the Internet country code, the third column the number of sites with more than 4 users, the fourth and fifth columns the numbers of users in 1994 and 1995):
Country code sites 1994 1995 % change /IAU women/total
>4 users users 94 - 95
Argentina ar 4 72 79 9 1.2
Australia au 8 237 255 7 1.5 .15
Austria at 2 39 43 10 1.5
Belgium be 1 45 46 2 0.6
Brazil br 2 25 29 15 0.3
Canada ca 14 266 270 1 1.3 .08
Chile cl 1 0 17 0.4
China cn 1 1 72 7100 0.3
Croatia hr 0 1 1 0
Czech Rep. cz 2 11 22 100
Denmark dk 5 126 142 12 2.9 .12
Estonia ee 1 53 54 1
Finland fi 3 51 52 1 1.8
France fr 12 522 619 18 1.1 .19
Germany de 20 366 480 31 1.1 .06
Greece gr 1 13 23 76 0.3
Hungary hu 2 39 37 -5 1.0
Iceland is 0 3 3 0 1.0
India in 4 141 148 4 0.7
Ireland ie 4 30 41 36 1.7
Israel il 3 30 49 63 1.1
Italy it 21 677 711 5 1.9 .22
Japan jp 19 385 462 20 1.3
Latvia lv 0 1 1 0
Lithuania lt 2 5 19 280
Mexico mx 1 26 61 134 1.1
Netherlands nl 10 341 391 14 2.5 .03
New Zealand nz 1 20 22 10 1.0
Norway no 2 52 56 7 2.7
Poland pl 3 46 98 113 1.0
Portugal pt 1 6 8 33 0.5
Romania ro 0 1 1 0 0.0
Russia ru 0 0 20
Russia su 16 552 554 0 1.3 .15
Slovakia cs 0 8 5 -37
South Africa za 3 48 49 2 1.4
Spain es 14 351 384 9 2.3 .18
Sweden se 5 130 149 14 1.8 .07
Switzerland ch 3 70 85 21 1.5
Thailand th 0 1 1 0
UK uk 34 1909 1721 -9 3.6 .12
Ukraine ua 9 280 291 3 .20
USA com 0 18 24 33
USA edu 54 3044 3253 6 1.8 .13
USA gov 3 303 381 25 .10
USA mil 2 81 85 4
(Yugoslavia) yu 1 6 6 0 0.2
Eur. S. Obs. org 1 348 406 16 .10
The list is (at 1995) growing about 5% per year,
partly reflecting increased coverage of smaller institutions,
partly the extension of the Internet to new communuties, e.g. in
China.
(The small decrease in the number of UK entries since 1994
reflects purging of duplicate usernames.)
50% of the names included in the 1988 edition are still present in
the 1994 or 1995 editions, suggesting an attrition rate of
about 10% per year. About 20% of these names have changed
institution between 1988 and 1994/5, suggesting that about 4%
of the users (astronomers and support staff) change institution each year.
The /IAU column gives the ratio between the number of entries and the number of IAU members as given in the June 1993 IAU bulletin. The countries with more than 10 IAU members in 1993 but no entries in the directory are Bulgaria, Egypt, Korea (N and S), Taiwan and Turkey.
The sites with more than 100 entries are: NOAO (524), NRAO (375), ESO (354), GSFC (251), Meudon, Moscow (probably several institutions), STScI, CfA, IOA Cambridge, ROE, Caltech, RGO, Steward, UCL, Maryland and IAC Tenerife (102).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >10 0 318 2252 1028 1505 1832 1772 1745 507 342 464with 3-character alphabetic usernames remaining the most popular. Some institutions appear to be sticking to an 8-character limit. Only a few institutions have adopted the unwieldy `firstname.lastname' form of address.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 85% Astronomy and Astrophysics 70% Astrophysical Journal 50%
The above statistics were originally published in Spectrum no. 8, p. 27 (Dec 1995).
"a really beautiful job" Stanford Linear Accelerator Group "a very nice piece of work... a great idea" Space Telescope "Brilliant!!!" Cambridge IOA "fort utile" Belgian RAS "just what I've always needed" Mt. Stromlo "VERY useful" Dwingeloo "a godsend" Sussex "Splendid!" Utrecht "very impressive" Texas "Congratulations... very useful" Tel Aviv "Congratulations... really useful" Edinburgh "everybody here is very enthusiastic!" Roden "Congratulations for this nice idea" Crete "so popular that our copy has been stolen" Aarhus "excellent" CSIRO "a great idea!" Berkeley "very much appreciated" Uppsala "Truly amazing!" NOAO "very useful" VILSPA "excellent" Durham "marvellous" Heidelberg "so useful" Geneva "valuable resource" Hawaii IFA "your directory is great!" Indiana "a very good job" INPE, Brazil "valuable" Nobeyama "we all appreciate your efforts very much" Thessaloniki "excellent service" Tokyo "very valuable guide" USNO "informative and entertaining" Berkeley "a nice compendium" RHNBC "very valuable service" New Mexico "Good work!" Strasbourg CDS "You really need some award" Lowell "Congratulations" National Research Council, USA "much appreciated" Oxford "very useful tool" Brorfelde "extremely useful" ESO "extremely useful" Cambridge MRAO "good stuff" Open University "extremely useful" Padova "extremely useful" UCL "highly estimated" Zurich "excellent" Madrid "excellent work" Christchurch, NZ "very fine job" Heidelberg Landesternwarte "extremely useful" Keele "a real service" Toledo
Beletic, James ESO I jbeletic@eso.org 95 Beletsky, Yu.V. Odessa I yuri@deneb.odessa.ua 00 Belian, Dick LosAlam I belian@essdp2.lanl.gov 95 Belkus, Houria BrusUni I hbelkus@vub.ac.be 00 Bell Burnell, Jocelyn OpenU I s.j.b.burnell@open.ac.uk 00 Bell, Roger AAO I rb@aaoepp.aao.gov.au 00 Bell, Barbara CfA I bbell@cfa.harvard.edu 00 Bell, Eric Steward ebell@as.arizona.edu 00 Bell, James F. Cornell jimbo@marswatch.tn.cornell.edu 00 Bell, Jeff Hawaii I bell@kahana.pgd.hawaii.edu 94 Bell, Jon ATNF I jon.bell@atnf.csiro.au 00 Bell, Jon Jodrell I J.Bell@jb.man.ac.uk 00 Bell, K. Robbins ARC I bell@cosmic.arc.nasa.gov 97 Bell, Kenny Belfast I Kl.Bell@qub.ac.uk 00 Bell, Morley HIA I morley.bell@nrc.ca 00 Bell, Morley Ottawa I mbb@hiaras.hia.nrc.ca 95 Bell, Roger Maryld I roger@astro.umd.edu 00 Bell, Steven CambIoA I sab@ast.cam.ac.uk 00 Bellas-Velidis, Ioan. NOA-IAA ibellas@astro.noa.gr 00 Bellazzini, Michele Bologna I bellazzini@bo.astro.it 00 Belloni, Tomaso MilanMe I belloni@merate.mi.astro.it 00 Bellot Rubio, L. R. TenIAC bellot@ll.iac.es 00 Belmonte Aviles, J. A. TenIAC jba@ll.iac.es 00 Beloborodov, Andrei Stockhm I andrei@astro.su.se 00 Belokon', Elena E. AISPbU I bel@astro.spbu.ru 00 Belov, Igor Kazan I Igor.Belov@ksu.ru 00 Belskaya, Irina N. AOKhNU irina@astron.kharkov.ua 00 Belton, Mike NOAO I mbelton@noao.edu 00 Belvedere, Gaetano Catania I gbelvedere@alpha4.ct.astro.it 00 Belville, Ralph OhioSt I belville@astronomy.ohio-state.edu 00 Bely, Pierre STScI I bely@stsci.edu 00 Belyakov, Constantine Kazan I kl@mi.ru 00 Belyakova, Elena Kazan I kl@mi.ru 00 Belyanin, Alexei A. NizhnyN I belyanin@appl.sci-nnov.ru 00 Bem, Jerzy Wroclaw I bem@astro.uni.wroc.pl 00 Bemmel, I.M. van Groning I i.m.van.bemmel@astro.rug.nl 96 Ben-ezra, Menahem Givatay I menbe@freud.tau.ac.il 97 Benacchio, Leopoldo Padova benacchio@pd.astro.it 00 Benayoun, Jean-Jac Grenobl I benayoun@laog.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr 97 Bendinelli, Orazio Bologna I bendinelli@bo.astro.it 00 Bendlin, Cornelia Wuerzbg I bendlin@astro.uni-wuerzburg.de 96 Benedict, G. Fritz Texas fritz @astro.as.utexas.edu 00 Benetti, Stefano ESO I sbenetti@eso.org 95 Benetti, Stefano Padova benetti@pd.astro.it 00 Benevides Soares SaoPaul I pbs@iag.usp.ansp.br 94 Benford, Dominic GSFC I dominic.benford@gsfc.nasa.gov 00 Bengoechea, Beatriz Oxford I b.bengoechea1@physics.oxford.ac.uk 96 Benit, Jean IAS jean.benit@ias.fr 00 Benjaffel, Lofti ParisIA I benjaffel@iap.fr 96 Benko, Jozsef Konkoly I benko@konkoly.hu 00 Benn, Chris LaPalma I crb@ing.iac.es 00 Benna, Carlo OATo benna@to.astro.it 00 Benneker, Charles LaPalma I benneker@ing.iac.es 00 Bennett, Charles L. GSFC I bennett@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov 96 Bennett, Chris Bradfor I c.m.bennett@bradford.ac.uk 96 Bennett, David Swindon I David_Bennett@pparc.ac.uk 98 Bennett, Jane Swindon I Jane_Bennett@pparc.ac.uk 98 Bennett, Keith StAndST I keith@mcs.st-and.ac.uk 00 Bennett, Kevin ESTEC I kbennett@astro.estec.esa.nl 00 Bennett, Linda Jodrell I lbennett@jb.man.ac.uk 00 Bennett, Michael ASP I mbennett@stars.sfsu.edu 00 Bennett, Richard ATC I rjb@roe.ac.uk 00 Bennett, Richard CfA I rbennett@cfa.harvard.edu 00 Bennett, Stephen CambIoA I sbennet@ast.cam.ac.uk 00 Bennie, Paul Leicest I pbe@star.le.ac.uk 00 Beno, Larry NRAO I lbeno@nrao.edu 96 Bensby, Thomas Lund I thomas@astro.lu.se 00 Bensch, Frank CfA I fbensch@cfa.harvard.edu 00 Bensch, Frank KOSMA I bensch@ph1.uni-koeln.de 00 Benson, Andrew Durham A.J.Benson@durham.ac.uk 00 Benson, John NRAO I jbenson@nrao.edu 96 Bentley, Bob MSSL rdb@mssl.ucl.ac.uk 00 Bentley, Mike Jodrell I mikeb@jb.man.ac.uk 00 Bentley, Robert RAL I rdb@ast.star.rl.ac.uk 94 Bentum, Mark Dwing I bentum@nfra. nl 00 Benum, Hallvard Oslo I hallvard.benum@astro.uio.no 00 Benvenuti, Piero ESO I pbenvenu@eso.org 95 Benvenuto, Omar LaPlata I obenvenuto@fcaglp.edu.ar 00 Benz, A.O. Zurich I benz@astro.phys.ethz.ch 00 Berczi, Szaniszlo Budapes I bercziszani@ludens.elte.hu 98 Berczik, Peter Kiev I berczik@mao.kiev.ua 96 Berdnikov, L.N. Moscow I berdnik@sai.msu.su 96 Berdyugin, Andrey Crimea berd@crao.crimea.ua 00 Berdyugina, Svetlana Crimea sveta@crao.crimea.ua 00 Berdyugina, Svetlana Oulu I sveta@ukko.oulu.fi 98 Berendse, Frederick Maryld I berendse@astro.umd.edu 00 Berera, Arjun IFA I aber@roe.ac.uk 00 Berezne, Jean Grenobl I berezne@laog.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr 97 Berg, Maurenn C.van denUtrecht I M.C.vandenBerg@astro.uu.nl 00 Berg, Solveig Oslo I solveig.berg@ub.uio.no 00 Bergamini, Roberto BolRA I bergamini@ira.bo.cnr.it 00 Bergeat, Jacques Lyon I bergeat@obs.univ-lyon1.fr 00 Berger, Beverly K. AnnArbo I berger@astro.lsa.umich.edu 96 Berger, Birgit JenaAIU I berger@astro.uni-jena.de 00 Berger, David GeorgSt I berger@chara.gsu.edu 00 Berger, Jean-Phill Grenobl I berger@laog.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr 97 Berger, Mitchell A. UCL I m.berger@ucl.ac.uk 00 Berger, Thomas E. LMATC I berger@lmsal.com 00 Bergeron, Carol Ottawa I carol@hiaras.hia.nrc.ca 95 Bergeron, Jacquelin ParisIA I bergeron@iap.fr 96
