Hi everyone,
For those who aren’t familiar with it yet, let me introduce Astro-COLIBRI.
Astro-COLIBRI is developed by a team of professional astronomers at IRFU / CEA Paris-Saclay (France) with a clear mission in mind: faciliate time domain astrophysics and bridge the gap between professional research and amateur astronomy. It is a free, open-access platform designed to help both communities keep track of the transient sky in real time.
We aggregate live alerts from across the global network of observatories and brokers (TNS, GCN, CBAT, etc.) and compile them into a (hopefully) easy-to-use and intuitive dashboard. Whether you are looking for new Supernovae, Novae, GRBs, or multi-messenger phenomena like gravitational waves and high-energy neutrinos, Astro-COLIBRI maps them instantly after their detection/announcement, evaluates their visibility for your specific location, brings in multi-wavelength archival data, and much more.
We have been pushing out a lot of new features aimed at giving the amateur and citizen science community more power to plan observations and contribute to time domain science. Here are a few highlights from our recent releases (up to our latest v2.29.0 update):
Key Features for Amateur Astronomers & Citizen Scientists:
- AAVSO & Photometry Integration: In addition to data from large surveys like ZTF, ATLAS, Rubin/LSST, etc. we have integrated AAVSO photometry directly into our light curves and CSV exports (using B, V, R, and I bands by default). If you are contributing data to AAVSO or tracking a target’s evolution, you can see how live photometry trends align with active alerts.
- Advanced Visibility Assessment & Custom Observatories: You can input your precise coordinates to create a custom observatory profile. The platform generates live visibility timeline graphics so you know exactly when a new transient will clear your local horizon.
Augmented Reality Mode (Astro-COLIBRI AR): Want to know exactly where a freshly detected transient is relative to your physical sky? You can now experience the transient sky in AR on your smartphone, enabling a quick visual check before you sync your mount.
NMMA Light-Curve Fitting: Our latest update introduces fitting of theoretical models using the Nuclear Physics and Multi-Messenger Astronomy (NMMA) framework. You can submit fully configurable fits to photometric light curves directly via the interface to visualize Kilonova/Supernova model predictions.
Where to find us:
Astro-COLIBRI is open and free to use (except for the AR feature which is a paid subscription helping us to keep the platform running). You can use it directly in your browser or install the mobile apps to set up custom push notifications (e.g., getting alerted immediately if a bright supernova is discovered).
- Web Interface: https://astro-colibri.com
- Documentation, tutorials, links to the smartphone apps, etc.: https://astro-colibri.science
Because we develop this tool directly out of professional astrophysics workflows, we are deeply committed to optimizing it for the pro-am collaboration community. Give it a look, try planning your next imaging run around a live transient, and please let us know your thoughts, feedback, or any features you’d love to see added!
Clear skies,
Fabian for the Astro-COLIBRI Team