We’re thrilled to announce the latest update to the Astro-COLIBRI platform (now at v2.9.0), bringing an extensive array of enhancements. Whether you’re a professional astronomer or an enthusiastic amateur, we hope these updates enrich your experience. Let’s dive into what’s new!
Introducing Our New Discussion Forum: Join us here in the Astro-COLIBRI Discussion Forum to share insights on the latest astronomical events, get direct support from our team, and engage in lively discussions on everything from astrophotography to the latest tools and equipment. Our discussion forum is open for everyone to read and explore. For those wishing to contribute, you can easily do so by connecting with your Astro-COLIBRI account, ensuring a seamless and hassle-free experience.
New API Endpoint - “latest_transients”: Responding to your valuable feedback, we’re excited to introduce the “latest_transients” API endpoint. This new feature allows you to effortlessly select and download the details of events you’re most interested in. To help you make the most of this functionality, we’ve incorporated a user-friendly selection process on the frontend. As before, you can conveniently filter the desired events, but now you can also download the corresponding JSON file with all details. Furthermore, to ensure you can leverage this new feature to its full potential, we’ve prepared an interactive tutorial notebook. This is available on our API documentation page, providing a practical use-case example to guide you through the process of using the API directly.
Mobile Interface Updates:
- Visual Event Descriptions: Selected events are now easier to identify as they are illustrated with images and clear event type indicators.
- External Links Toggle: The external links are valuable but took a lot of space. In the new version you gain control over the interface with the option to show or hide external links.
- Enhanced Notifications: Stay updated with a more intuitive notification screen.
- Notifications for well-localized Gravitational Wave events: Be the first to know about well-localized gravitational waves with our new notification stream announcing events with localisations <100\mathrm{deg}^2 (50% CL)
Performance and Usability Improvements:
- Bug Fixes: We’ve squashed some pesky bugs for a smoother experience.
- Cone Searches Redefined: Enhanced the manual cone searches, reorganized the corresponding widget, and boosted performance.
- Tilepy Results Display: We’ve fixed naming and display issues for seamless usage of the observation plans used for follow-up observations of GWs.
New Additions and Partnerships:
- MeerKAT Observatory: The SKA precursor observatory is now part of the predefined list of observatories and can thus be used for the assessment of observability of a selected event.
- Unistellar Citizen Science Events: Enjoy an improved display of these engaging community science events.
- AAVSO: We’ve updated our link to AAVSO, integrating a cone search in VSX for an enhanced experience.
- Fink: We’ve updated our link to the Fink broker, adapting to their latest API endpoints.
As always, your feedback is extremely helpful, so don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and suggestions here on our forum or directly with our team.
Clear Skies and Happy Observing,
The Astro-COLIBRI Team 
