2MASS | Two Micron All Sky Survey |
4MOST | 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope |
AAAC | Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee |
AANM | Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millennium (2000 astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey report) |
ACCORD | AURA Coordinating Council of Observatory Research Directors |
AGN | active galactic nuclei |
ALMA | Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array |
ALTAIR | Access to Large Telescopes for Astronomical Instruction and Research |
ANTARES | Arizona—NOAO Temporal Analysis and Response to Events System |
AO | adaptive optics |
AODP | Adaptive Optics Development Program (NSF) |
APO | Apache Point Observatory |
APOGEE | APO Galactic Evolution Experiment |
ARC | Astrophysical Research Consortium |
ARCONS | Array Camera for Optical to Near-IR Spectrophotometry |
ASAS-SN | All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae |
ASM | Adaptive Secondary Mirrors |
AST | Division of Astronomical Sciences (NSF) |
ATI | Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation (NSF) |
ATLAS | Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System |
AURA | Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy |
BAO | baryon acoustic oscillation |
BoRG | Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies Survey |
BOSS | Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey |
BPA | Board on Physics and Astronomy (NRC) |
CAA | Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics (NRC) |
CADC | Canadian Astronomy Data Centre |
CANDELS | Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey |
CFHT | Canada France Hawaii Telescope |
CLASH | Cluster Lensing and Supernova Survey with Hubble |
CPU | central processing unit |
CTIO | Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory |
DCT | Discovery Channel Telescope |
DECam | Dark Energy Camera |
DEIMOS | Deep Imaging Multi-Object Spectrograph |
DES | Dark Energy Survey |
DESC | Dark Energy Survey Collaboration |
DESI | Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument |
DKIST | Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope |
DOE | Department of Energy |
DPOSS | Digitized Palomar Observatory Sky Survey |
DR12 | Data Release 12 |
eBOSS | extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey |
E-ELT | European Extremely Large Telescope |
EMIR | Espectrógrafo Multi-objecto InfraRojo |
EPDS | Extreme Precision Doppler Spectrometer |
ESA | European Space Agency |
ESI | Echellette Spectrograph and Imager |
ESO | European Southern Observatory |
ESPRESSO | Echelle Spectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations |
FOV | field of view |
GMACS | GMT wide-field multi-object optical spectrograph |
GMOS | Gemini multi-object spectrograph |
GMT | Giant Magellan Telescope |
GMTO | Giant Magellan Telescope Organization |
GPI | Gemini Planet Imager |
GRB | gamma ray burst |
GSMT | Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope |
GTC | Gran Telescopio Canarias |
HEASARC | High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center |
HET | Hobby-Eberly Telescope |
HETDEX | Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment |
HFF | Hubble Frontier Fields |
HIRES | High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer |
HST | Hubble Space Telescope |
HUDF12 | Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2012 |
IFU | integral field unit |
INT | Isaac Newton Telescope |
IPAC | Infrared Processing and Analysis Center |
iPHAS | INT Photometric H-Alpha Survey |
iPTF | Intermediate Palomar Transient Factory |
IR | infrared |
IRSA | Infrared Science Archive |
IRTF | Infrared Telescope Facility |
IVOA | International Virtual Observatory Alliance |
JWST | James Webb Space Telescope |
KCWI | Keck Cosmic Web Imager |
KI | Keck Interferometer |
KPNO | Kitt Peak National Observatory |
LAMOST | Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fibre Spectroscopic Telescope |
LBNL | Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
LBT | Large Binocular Telescope |
LBTI | Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer |
LCOGT | Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope |
LEECH | LBT Exozodi Exoplanet Common Hunt |
LHC | Large Hadron Collider |
LIGO | Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory |
LOSS | Lick Observatory Supernova Search |
LRIS | Low-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer |
LSST | Large Synoptic Survey Telescope |
MARVELS | Multi-object APO Radial Velocity Exoplanet Large-area Survey |
MAST | Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes |
MESA | Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics |
MKID | microwave kinetic inductance detector |
MMT | Multiple Mirror Telescope (former) |
MOONS | Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph |
MOS | multi-object spectroscopy |
MOSFIRE | Multi-Object Spectrometer for Infra-Red Exploration |
MREFC | Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (NSF) |
MRI | Major Research Instrumentation |
MSE | Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer |
MSIP | Mid-Scale Innovations Program (NSF) |
MUSE | Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (ESO) |
NASA | National Aeronautics and Space Administration |
NCSA | National Center for Supercomputing Applications |
NFIRAOS | Narrow Field Infrared Adaptive Optics System |
NICMOS | Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer |
NIRC | Near Infrared Camera |
NIRC2 | Near Infrared Camera 2 |
NIRSPEC | Near Infrared Echelle Spectrometer |
NN-EXPLORE | NASA-NSF Exoplanet Observational Research |
NOAO | National Optical Astronomical Observatory |
NRAO | National Radio Astronomy Observatory |
NRC | National Research Council |
NSF | National Science Foundation |
NuSTAR | Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array |
NWNH | New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics (2010 astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey report) |
O/IR | optical and infrared |
OIR | optical and infrared |
OSIRIS | Optical System for Imaging and low-Intermediate-Resolution Integrated Spectroscopy |
OSTP | Office of Science and Technology Policy |
Pan-STARRS | Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System |
PB | petabyte (= 1 million gigabytes = 1015 bytes) |
PFS | Prime Focus Spectrograph |
PI | principal investigator |
PRC | Portfolio Review Committee |
PS1 | Prototype Telescope for Pan-STARRS |
PTF | Palomar Transient Factory |
ReSTAR | Renewing Small Telescopes for Astronomical Research |
REU | Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NSF) |
RMS | radio, millimeter, and submillimeter |
SALT | Southern African Large Telescope |
SDSS | Sloan Digital Sky Survey |
SEEDS | Strategic Exploration of Exoplanets and Disks with Subaru |
SEGUE | Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration |
SKA | Square Kilometer Array |
SLAC | Stanford Linear Accelerator Center |
SMARTS | Small and Moderate Aperture Research Telescope System |
SOAR | Southern Astrophysical Research telescope |
SPHERE | Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research |
SPMT | San Pedro Martir Telescope |
SSB | Space Studies Board (NRC) |
TAC | time allocation committee |
TAO | Tokyo Atacama Observatory |
TB | terabyte (=1,000 gigabytes = 1012 bytes) |
TESS | Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite |
TIO | TMT International Observatory |
TMT | Thirty Meter Telescope |
TNO | Trans-Neptunian Object |
ToO | target of opportunity |
TSIP | Telescope System Instrumentation Program |
ugrizy | Set of broadband optical filters from ultraviolet through near-infrared |
UKIDSS | UKIRT Deep Infrared Deep Sky Survey |
UKIRT | United Kingdom Infrared Telescope |
URO | University Radio Observatories |
USVAO | U.S. Virtual Astronomical Observatory (formerly the National Virtual Observatory |
UVEX | UV-Excess Survey of the Northern Galactic Plane |
VISTA | Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy |
VLA | Very Large Array |
VLT | Very Large Telescope |
VO | virtual observatory |
VVPS | Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022 (2011 planetary science decadal survey report) |
WEAVE | WHT Enhanced Area Velocity Explorer |
WFIRST | Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope |
WHT | William Herschel Telescope (Canary Islands 4.2-m telescope) |
WIRO | Wyoming Infrared Observatory |
WISE | Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer |
WIYN | Wisconsin-Indiana-Yale-NOAO Consortium 3.5-m telescope |
ZTF | Zwicky Transient Facility |