Many residents of the Southwest missed this spectacular 1997 evening twilight launch from Vandenberg AFB. Launch Alert readers were notified in advance and enjoyed an impressive display.

Launch Alert (previously called "Astronomy/Space Alert for Southern California") is a free, e-mail based newsletter covering pending missile launches from Vandenberg AFB and other southern California astronomy and space news. Many of the events covered are visible across much of the Southwest. Launch Alert is edited by Brian Webb and published about four times per month.

To view a sample issue, click here.

The simplest way to sign-up, unsubscribe, or change addresses is via e-mail using the instructions provided below. You can also accomplish these and more advanced tasks by going to:

1. Create the following e-mail message:

   To: launch-alert-request@mailman.qth.net
   Subject: subscribe
   Message: subscribe

2. Press Send.

3. You should receive an e-mail titled "Launch-Alert--confirmation...". In most cases, you can leave the message as-is and press Reply.

   If you replied to the confirmation e-mail as described above, but your request couldn't be processed, press Reply and make these changes to the message:

   Subject: Leave unchanged
   Message: confirm [confirmation number]

4. Press Send.

5. You should receive a welcome message within an hour. Be sure to read it carefully and save it in a safe place - it has your password.

   If you receive an error notification, go back to step 3 and use the alternate method for replying to the confirmation message.

1. Create the following e-mail message:

   To: launch-alert-request@mailman.qth.net
   Subject: unsubscribe
   Message: unsubscribe [your password]

2. Press Send.

3. You should receive an e-mail titled "Unsubscribed...".

   You may receive two messages - one stating that your unsubscribe request failed and another saying you were unsubscribed. The first message is erroneous. It's probably caused by a bug in the server software.

To change your newsletter delivery e-mail address, do the following:

1. If your current e-mail address will die (because you're changing jobs, Internet service providers, etc.), you don't have to unsubscribe. The newsletter server will eventually identify it as a bad address and automatically remove it from the distribution list.

   However, if your current e-mail address will remain in service, unsubscribe from it (see "Unsubscribing").

2. Subscribe from your new e-mail address (refer to "Subscribing").