An office of the International Astronomical Union that announces discoveries of objects and transient events such as comets, asteroids, novae, and supernovae which require immediate observation. The first telegram bureau was established by the Astronomische Gesellschaft at Kiel, Germany, in 1884, and moved to Copenhagen in 1914. Its work was adopted by the IAU when that body was founded in 1919. Since 1965 the Bureau has been based at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Nowadays the bureau sends out its announcements by electronic mail.

http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/index.html Official website.