76 replies to this topic

[Ken Sturrock]

As an un-worthy update to the original masterpiece by Joe Cipriano (un-editable and locked in the archives), here is a list of ASTRONOMY-related abbreviations and terms frequently found on Cloudy Nights. Please feel free to add suggestions, which we can roll into the list over time. We do not, however, want to get too specialized - this is the Beginners' Forum after all. This thread will be linked from the pinned "Best of the Beginners' Forum & How-Tos" message. Thanks to all.

 

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Achro - Achromatic Refractor, or Achromat
AFoV - Apparent Field of View. Refers to the visual size of the field seen through an eyepiece, not the actual angular sky coverage. See also TFoV.
AG - Autoguider
Alt - Altitude
Alt/Az - Altazimuth mount
Apo - Apochromatic Refractor, or Apochromat
ATM - Amateur Telescope Making (or Maker)
Az - Azimuth

CA - Chromatic Aberration, an optical defect causing colors to come to different foci.
Cass - Cassegrain Reflector. See also Mak, RC, SCT.
Cat - Catadioptric Telescope. See also Mak, MN, SCT, SN.
CCD - Charged Coupled Device. A technology used to build sensors in digital cameras.

CF - Carbon Fiber (or Fibre) in reference to OTA material.

CO - Central Obstruction. Typically a secondary mirror in a reflector which blocks a portion of incoming light.
COL - Computerized Object Locator.
CMOS - Complementary Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor.  A technology used to build sensors in digital cameras.
CSC - Clear Sky Chart
CW - Counterweight
Dec - Declination
Dob - Dobsonian Telescope
DSC - Digital Setting Circles. Electronically display direction scope is pointed in RA/Dec coordinates.
DSO - Deep Space Object. Refers to most objects outside our solar system, including but not limited to galaxies, planetary nebula, globular clusters, etc.
DT - Dovetail plate

ED (glass) - Extra low Dispersion glass, a type of glass allowing better color correction in a refractor.

EoFB - Edge of Field Brightness
EP - Eyepiece
Eq - Equatorial Mount
FF - Field Flattener
FF/FR - Field Flattener/Focal length Reducer. See also FR.
FL - Focal Length
FOV - Field of View
FR or f/ - Focal Ratio. FR also Focal length Reducer. See also FF/FR.
GEM - German Equatorial Mount. See also EQ
HC - Hand Controller
JD - John Dobson. Inventor of the Dobsonian. See also Dob.
LP - Light Pollution

LPZ - Light Polluition Zone, a descriptor of light pollution found in the area.
Mak - Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope
MN - Maksutov-Newtonian Telescope
MOT - Mirror On Top. ATM term for mirror grinding, where the mirror is on top of the grinding tool. See also TOT.
NEAF - NorthEast Astronomy Forum & Telescope Show.
NEAF Blem - New but blemished equipment sold by manufacturers at NEAF, having flaws that do not impact functionality. See also NEAF.
NELM - Naked Eye Limiting Magnitude
Newt - Newtonian Reflector
OAG - Off-axis Guider
OTA - Optical Tube Assembly
PE - Periodic Error. Tracking errors caused by the imperfections inherent in any worm gear system. These errors repeat every rotation of the worm, hence Periodic.
PEC - Periodic Error Control or Correction. A method of sending pre-recorded corrections to compensate for mount periodic error.
PPEC - Permanent Periodic Error Correction. A version of PEC whereby the recorded corrections are retained in the mount after power loss.
RA - Right Ascension
RACI - Right-Angle Correct-Image finder - flips image to correspond to what the eye sees unaided.
RC - Ritchey-Chretien Telescope
RDF - Red Dot Finder [Form of Unity or Unit-power (1x magnification) finder]

ROR - Roll Off Roof, a type of observatory design
RFT - Rich Field Telescope

SA - Spherical Aberration, An optical defect
Sb - Surface brightness (or a Barred Spiral galaxy, depending on context)
SBS - Side-by-side saddle plate
SCT - Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope

SD (Glass) - A marketing term for Super Low Dispersion glass, a type of ED glass
SN - Schmidt-Newtonian Telescope
SRF - Slobbering Refractor Freak
Stack - An image created from several frames (sub-exposures), which have been aligned with image processing software.
Sub - Sub-exposure. See also Stack.
TFoV - True Field of View. The actual angular measurement of sky seen through an eyepiece. See also AFoV.
TOT - Tool On Top. ATM term for mirror grinding, where the grinding tool is on top of the mirror. See also MOT.
UTA - Upper Tube Assembly; seldom-used acronym for the secondary cage of a Dobsonian telescope. See also Dob.

 

 

 

Manufacturers/Vendors:
AM or AMart - AstroMart
AP - Astro-Physics (or Astrophotography, depending on context)
BO/TMB or TMB/BO - Burgess Optical/Thomas M. Back
C - Celestron

CN - Cloudy Nights

ES - Explore Scientific
GSO - Guan Sheng Optical
IP - ImagesPlus
MI - Mountain Instruments
MSS - Mercury Systems Support
OGS - Optical Guidance Systems
PI - PixInsight
PS - Adobe PhotoShop
PSP - Jasc (Corel) Paint Shop Pro
RCOS - RC Optical Systems
S&T - Sky & Telescope Magazine
SV - Stellarvue

SW - Sky Watcher
Tak - Takahashi
TMB - TMB (Thomas Back) Optical
TV - TeleVue
Number T number - TeleVue eyepiece reference, "T" refers to "Type"; "17T4" refers to a TV Nagler 17mm Type 4
UO - University Optics
WO - William Optics

[kfiscus]

ROR- has 2 completely different astro meanings.  Roll-off roof and Residual Oil Remover (I think).

[junomike]

"ED" or Extra Low Dispersion glass (as well as for ED Doublet) is also missing.

 

Mike

[Ken Sturrock]

ROR- has 2 completely different astro meanings.  Roll-off roof and Residual Oil Remover (I think).

 

OK, so which one do we care about? I've only heard of the former.

[halx]

LPZ - light pollution zone, often preceded by its type e.g. "Black LPZ" or "BLPZ" - black light pollution zone;

[raulert]

ES - Explore Scientific, CF - carbon fiber, GSO - Guan Sheng Optical.

[halx]

SA - ???
CA - ???
(see here: http://www.cloudynig.../#entry7324158)

[kfiscus]

 

ROR- has 2 completely different astro meanings.  Roll-off roof and Residual Oil Remover (I think).

 

OK, so which one do we care about? I've only heard of the former.

 

Stuff sold or concocted at home for cleaning oil smears off the top surface of EPs.  The oil comes off of eyelashes.

Edited by kfiscus, 14 July 2016 - 01:26 PM.

[Ken Sturrock]

Stuff sold or concocted at home for cleaning oil smears off the top surface of EPs.  The oil comes off of eyelashes.

Yeah, I guessed what it did but I had never heard of that term before. It's a specific brand name for a type of cleaner.

[LennyM]

Good job.

[WarmWeatherGuy]

Here is my list:

 

 CN.txt   10.81KB   423 downloads

 

[Ken Sturrock]

Here is my list:

There's a lot of stuff in there.

 

I think that we're trying to stay with the basics but, would love to steal some of those terms if I ever have the time to cross reference them

We made the decision to trim out a lot of the "net talk" stuff (e.g. AFAIK) and may move towards ditching trade names, commercial names and initials of companies that actually do business under their initials (the old TMB or the current ZWO vs. ZW Optics vs. whatever ZW actually stands for, which I can't find....). There's also the danger of getting really esoteric (i.e. AP terms or galaxy types - which aren't even Beginners' topics).

 

Ultimately, we're not going to cover everything and it may not even be worth trying.

[WarmWeatherGuy]

 

Here is my list:

There's a lot of stuff in there.

 

I think that we're trying to stay with the basics but, would love to steal some of those terms if I ever have the time to cross refer3ence them

We made the decision to trim out a lot of the "net talk" stuff (e.g. AFAIK) and may move towards ditching trade names, commercial names and initials of companies that actually do business under their initials (the old TMB or the current ZWO vs. ZW Optics vs. whatever ZW actually stands for, which I can't find....). There's also the danger of getting really esoteric (i.e. AP terms or galaxy types - which aren't even Beginners' topics).

 

Ultimately, we're not going to cover everything and it may not even be worth trying.

 

 

I figured there would be a few you would like to add to your list. I took a few from your list too. Its all good.

[ammisco]

I just bookmarked the list.  Thanks!

[Dave Mitsky]

Ever wonder why APO, unlike achro, is capitalized when it is a contraction and not an acronym? The same goes for EQ and EP.  Why not DOB instead of Dob for that matter? 

 

Dave Mitsky

[Ken Sturrock]

Ever wonder why APO, unlike achro, is capitalized when it is a contraction and not an acronym? The same goes for EQ and EP.  Why not DOB instead of Dob for that matter? 

 

Dave Mitsky

 

Not until now.......

[dr.who]

Ditto...

[RKK]

Thanks for posting that list Ken!

[scjoe]

Great post and a big help! Thank you!

[precaud]

One could easily double the size of the list by going over to the ATM forum 

[Ab Umbra Lumen]

Why not DOB instead of Dob for that matter? 

Personally, I've always found Dob to be a friendly nick-like acronym, like "Doc".

DOB would just scare off!

Ab

[pjmulka]

Thank you!!!

[George Eliot]

ahoy

also

thank you

 

mac

[ascii]

How about CO - Central Obstruction?

 

It's a very widely used term.

[WarmWeatherGuy]

How about CO - Central Obstruction?

 

It's a very widely used term.

It is in my list. See comment #11.