Jump to content

  •  

CNers have asked about a donation box for Cloudy Nights over the years, so here you go. Donation is not required by any means, so please enjoy your stay.

Photo

New Abbreviations and Acronym List

  • Please log in to reply
76 replies to this topic

#1 Ken Sturrock

Ken Sturrock

    Cardinal Ximenez

  • *****
  • topic starter
  • Posts: 13,236
  • Joined: 26 Sep 2009
  • Loc: Denver, CO

Posted 14 July 2016 - 12:39 PM

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.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

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


  • Jon Isaacs, REC, G4Jon and 15 others like this

#2 kfiscus

kfiscus

    Cosmos

  • *****
  • Posts: 8,515
  • Joined: 09 Jul 2012
  • Loc: Albert Lea, MN, USA

Posted 14 July 2016 - 12:45 PM

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


  • panhard, Ken Sturrock and Augustus like this

#3 junomike

junomike

    ISS

  • *****
  • Administrators
  • Posts: 22,608
  • Joined: 07 Sep 2009
  • Loc: Ontario

Posted 14 July 2016 - 12:57 PM

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

 

Mike


  • Ken Sturrock likes this

#4 Ken Sturrock

Ken Sturrock

    Cardinal Ximenez

  • *****
  • topic starter
  • Posts: 13,236
  • Joined: 26 Sep 2009
  • Loc: Denver, CO

Posted 14 July 2016 - 01:03 PM

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.



#5 halx

halx

    Vendor

  • ****-
  • Vendors
  • Posts: 2,585
  • Joined: 28 Sep 2010
  • Loc: Albany, California, USA

Posted 14 July 2016 - 01:04 PM

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


  • Ken Sturrock likes this

#6 raulert

raulert

    Explorer 1

  • -----
  • Posts: 52
  • Joined: 18 Jun 2016
  • Loc: 081W x 30N

Posted 14 July 2016 - 01:08 PM

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


  • Ken Sturrock likes this

#7 halx

halx

    Vendor

  • ****-
  • Vendors
  • Posts: 2,585
  • Joined: 28 Sep 2010
  • Loc: Albany, California, USA

Posted 14 July 2016 - 01:14 PM

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


  • Ken Sturrock likes this

#8 kfiscus

kfiscus

    Cosmos

  • *****
  • Posts: 8,515
  • Joined: 09 Jul 2012
  • Loc: Albert Lea, MN, USA

Posted 14 July 2016 - 01:25 PM

 

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 likes this

#9 Ken Sturrock

Ken Sturrock

    Cardinal Ximenez

  • *****
  • topic starter
  • Posts: 13,236
  • Joined: 26 Sep 2009
  • Loc: Denver, CO

Posted 14 July 2016 - 01:39 PM

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.

#10 LennyM

LennyM

    Messenger

  • -----
  • Posts: 427
  • Joined: 10 Mar 2015
  • Loc: Clarksburg West Virginia.

Posted 14 July 2016 - 02:12 PM

Good job.

#11 WarmWeatherGuy

WarmWeatherGuy

    Aurora

  • *****
  • Posts: 4,855
  • Joined: 27 Aug 2011
  • Loc: Las Cruces, NM 32° N, 107° W

Posted 14 July 2016 - 02:57 PM

Here is my list:

 

Attached File  CN.txt   10.81KB   423 downloads

 


  • Ken Sturrock, ChicagoBill, Augustus and 1 other like this

#12 Ken Sturrock

Ken Sturrock

    Cardinal Ximenez

  • *****
  • topic starter
  • Posts: 13,236
  • Joined: 26 Sep 2009
  • Loc: Denver, CO

Posted 14 July 2016 - 03:23 PM

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.



#13 WarmWeatherGuy

WarmWeatherGuy

    Aurora

  • *****
  • Posts: 4,855
  • Joined: 27 Aug 2011
  • Loc: Las Cruces, NM 32° N, 107° W

Posted 14 July 2016 - 03:28 PM

 

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. :)


  • Ken Sturrock likes this

#14 ammisco

ammisco

    Sputnik

  • *****
  • Posts: 40
  • Joined: 31 Dec 2015
  • Loc: Salt Lick City, Utah

Posted 14 July 2016 - 04:46 PM

I just bookmarked the list.  Thanks!



#15 Dave Mitsky

Dave Mitsky

    ISS

  • *****
  • Posts: 124,345
  • Joined: 08 Apr 2002
  • Loc: PA, USA, North America, Planet Earth

Posted 14 July 2016 - 08:27 PM

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 likes this

#16 Ken Sturrock

Ken Sturrock

    Cardinal Ximenez

  • *****
  • topic starter
  • Posts: 13,236
  • Joined: 26 Sep 2009
  • Loc: Denver, CO

Posted 14 July 2016 - 08:33 PM

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.......



#17 dr.who

dr.who

    James Webb Space Telescope

  • *****
  • Posts: 15,313
  • Joined: 05 Jan 2012

Posted 14 July 2016 - 11:01 PM

Ditto...

#18 RKK

RKK

    Vostok 1

  • *****
  • Posts: 117
  • Joined: 30 Mar 2016
  • Loc: Colorado

Posted 23 November 2016 - 09:10 AM

Thanks for posting that list Ken!



#19 scjoe

scjoe

    Explorer 1

  • *****
  • Posts: 70
  • Joined: 05 Jan 2017
  • Loc: Anderson, SC

Posted 13 January 2017 - 09:54 PM

Great post and a big help! Thank you!

#20 precaud

precaud

    Fly Me to the Moon

  • *****
  • Posts: 5,010
  • Joined: 05 Dec 2012
  • Loc: north central New Mexico

Posted 14 January 2017 - 09:56 AM

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


  • Dave Mitsky likes this

#21 Ab Umbra Lumen

Ab Umbra Lumen

    Vostok 1

  • -----
  • Posts: 101
  • Joined: 18 Sep 2016

Posted 14 January 2017 - 01:01 PM

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


  • izar187 and JohnBear like this

#22 pjmulka

pjmulka

    Apollo

  • *****
  • Posts: 1,145
  • Joined: 17 Sep 2015

Posted 14 January 2017 - 02:16 PM

Thank you!!!

#23 George Eliot

George Eliot

    Sputnik

  • -----
  • Posts: 32
  • Joined: 02 Dec 2016
  • Loc: Detroit

Posted 14 January 2017 - 03:28 PM

ahoy

also

thank you

 

mac



#24 ascii

ascii

    Soyuz

  • -----
  • Posts: 3,835
  • Joined: 04 Jun 2016
  • Loc: Orlando, FL, USA ~28.5ºN,81.5ºW

Posted 15 January 2017 - 09:42 AM

How about CO - Central Obstruction?

 

It's a very widely used term.



#25 WarmWeatherGuy

WarmWeatherGuy

    Aurora

  • *****
  • Posts: 4,855
  • Joined: 27 Aug 2011
  • Loc: Las Cruces, NM 32° N, 107° W

Posted 15 January 2017 - 09:46 AM

How about CO - Central Obstruction?

 

It's a very widely used term.

It is in my list. See comment #11.




CNers have asked about a donation box for Cloudy Nights over the years, so here you go. Donation is not required by any means, so please enjoy your stay.


Recent Topics






Cloudy Nights LLC
Cloudy Nights Sponsor: Astronomics