Assorted Astronomical Acronymns, Abbreviations and Abridgements
(Something I started a while ago, now hopelessly out-of-date :)| Misc | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
| Acronym: | link | Stands For: |
| MISC | | Top | | |
| 2BL |  |
2QZ BL Lac Sample |
| 2MASS | |
2 Micron All-Sky Survey |
| 2QZ | |
2dF Quasar Redshift Survey |
| 2dF | Two Degree Field (spectrograph) | |
| 3C | 3rd Cambridge catalogue of radio sources | |
| 3CR | 3rd Cambridge catalogue of radio sources, Revised edition | |
| A | | Top | | |
| A&A | |
Astronomy & Astrophysics |
| A&AS | |
Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement |
| AAO | |
Anglo-Australian Observatory |
| AAT | Anglo-Australian Telescope | |
| ADAF | Advection Dominated Accretion Flow | |
| AGB | Asymptotic Giant Branch | |
| AGES | |
Arecibo Galaxy Environments Survey |
| AGN | Active Galactic Nucleus/Nuclei | |
| AJ | |
Astronomical Journal |
| ANITA | |
Australian National Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics |
| ANITA | |
ANtarctic Impulse Transient Antenna |
| ANU | Australian National University | |
| ASKAP | |
Australian SKA Pathfinder |
| ATCA | |
Australia Telescope Compact Array |
| ATNF | |
Australia Telescope National Facility |
| ApJ | |
Astrophysical Journal |
| B | | Top | | |
| BAL | Broad Absorption Line | |
| BALQSO | Broad Absorption Line Quasi-StellarObject | |
| BAT | |
Burst Alert Telescope (onboard Swift) |
| BBB | Big Blue Bump | |
| BELR | Broad Emission Line Region | |
| BH | Black Hole | |
| BLR | Broad Line Region | |
| C | | Top | | |
| CABB | Compact Array Broadband Backend | |
| CAPMAP | Cosmic Anisotropy Polarization MAPper | |
| CASPIR | |
Cryogenic Array SPectrometer/ImageR (on ANU 2.3m) |
| CASTLES | |
CfA-Arizona Space Telescope LEns Survey |
| CCD | Charge-Coupled Device | |
| CFHT | |
Canada-France-Hawai'i Telescope |
| CGRO | Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory | |
| CLASS | |
Cosmic Lens All-Sky Survey |
| CMD | Colour-Magnitude Diagram | |
| CO5BOLD | |
COnservative COde for the COmputation of COmpressible COnvection in a BOx of L Dimensions with l=2,3 |
| CSIRO | |
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation |
| CTIO | |
Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory |
| Cangaroo | |
Collaboration between Australia and Nippon for a Gamma Ray Observatory in the Outback |
| CfA | |
Center for Astrophysics |
| D | | Top | | |
| DASI | Degree Angular Scale Interferometer | |
| DBS | |
Dual Beam Spectrograph (on ANU 2.3m) |
| DEEP | |
Deep Extragalactic Evolutionary Probe |
| DLA | Damped Lyman-Alpha system | |
| E | | Top | | |
| EGRET | Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope | |
| ELAIS | European Large Area ISO Survey | |
| ESO | |
European Southern Observatory |
| F | | Top | | |
| FIR | Far-InfraRed | |
| FIRST | |
Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-centimeters |
| FR I/II | Fanaroff-Riley (radio galaxy) type I/II | |
| FSRQ | Flat-Spectrum Radio Quasar | |
| FUSE | Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer | |
| FUV | Far-UltraViolet | |
| FWHM | Full Width at Half Maximum | |
| G | | Top | | |
| GALEX | |
GALaxy Evolution EXplorer |
| GBT | Green Bank Telescope | |
| GLAST | |
Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope |
| GMOS | Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (on Gemini) | |
| GMRT | |
Giant Metre-wave Radio Telescope |
| GNIRS | Gemini Near InfraRed Spectrograph (on Gemini South) | |
| GOES | Geostationary Observational Environment Satellite | |
| GRB | Gamma-Ray Burst | |
| GZK | Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin | |
| H | | Top | | |
| HBL | High frequency peaking BL Lac object | |
| HESS | High Energy Stereoscopic System | |
| HSB | High Surface Brightness | |
| HST | Hubble Space Telescope | |
| I | | Top | | |
| IAR | Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomia | |
| IAU | International Astronomical Union | |
| IC | Index Catalogue (of Nebulae) | |
| ICM | Intra-Cluster Medium | |
| IDV | Intra-Day Variable/Variability | |
| IGM | InterGalactic Medium | |
| INT | |
Isaac Newton Telescope |
| INTEGRAL | NTErnationalGamma Ray AstrophysicsLaboratory | |
| IRAF | Image Reduction and Analysis Facility | |
| IRAM | Institut de RadioAstronomie Millimetrique | |
| IRAS | InfraRed Astronomical Satellite | |
| IRIS | InfraRed Imager and Spectrograph (on AAT) | |
| IRTF | |
InfraRed Telescope Facility |
| ISM | InterStellar Medium | |
| ISO | Infrared Space Observatory | |
| IUE | International Ultraviolet Explorer | |
| IVO | International Virtual Observatory | |
| J | | Top | | |
| JAC | Joint Astronomy Centre | |
| JWST | James Webb Space Telescope | |
| K | | Top | | |
| KAOS | Kilo-Aperture Optical Spectrograph (intended for Gemini?) | |
| KELT | |
Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope |
| L | | Top | | |
| LBL | Low frequency peaking BL Lac object | |
| LBQS | Large Bright Quasar Survey | |
| LFD | Low Frequency Demonstrator | |
| LINER | Low Ionisation Nuclear Emission line Region | |
| LMC | Large Magellanic Cloud | |
| LPQ | Low Polarisation Quasar | |
| LSB | Low Surface Brightness | |
| LSS | Large Scale Structure | |
| LSS | Last Scattering Surface | |
| M | | Top | | |
| MGC | |
Millenium Galaxy Catalogue |
| MIPS | |
Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer |
| MIR | Mid-InfraRed | |
| MIRA | |
Milyura International Radio Array |
| MIRANdA | |
MIRA Large-N Small-d Array |
| MMT | Multiple Mirror Telescope (Minor Misnomer Telescope?) | |
| MNRAS | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society | |
| MWA | |
Mileura Widefield Array |
| N | | Top | | |
| NGC | New General Catalogue | |
| NGST | Next Generation Space Telescope | |
| NIFS | Near-infrared Integral Field Spectrograph (on Gemini North) | |
| NIR | Near-InfraRed | |
| NIRI | Near-InfraRed Imager and spectrograph (on Gemini North) | |
| NLS1 | Narrow Line Seyfert-1 | |
| NOT | Nordic Optical Telescope | |
| NTD | New Technology Demonstrator | |
| NVSS | |
NRAO VLA Sky Survey |
| O | | Top | | |
| OVV | Optically-Violent Variable | |
| OWL | OverWhelmingly Large telescope | |
| P | | Top | | |
| PAH | Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon | |
| PASA | Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia | |
| PASJ | Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan | |
| PASP | Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific | |
| PHFS | Parkes Half-Jansky Flat-spectrum Sample | |
| PILOT | |
Pathfinder for an International Large Optical Telescope |
| PIQUE | Princeton IQU Experiment | |
| PKS | Parkes | |
| Q | | Top | | |
| QSO | Quasi-Stellar Object | |
| QSR | Quasi-Stellar Radio source | |
| R | | Top | | |
| RFI | Radio Frequency Interference | |
| RIAF | Radiatively Inefficient Accretion Flow | |
| ROTSE | |
Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment |
| RRAT | |
Repeating Radio Transient |
| RSAA | |
Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics (at ANU) |
| S | | Top | | |
| SDSS | Sloan Digital Sky Survey | |
| SED | Spectral Energy Distribution | |
| SFR | Star Formation Rate | |
| SKA | |
Square Kilometre Array |
| SMBH | SuperMassive Black Hole | |
| SMC | Small Magellanic Cloud | |
| SN(e) | SuperNova(e) | |
| SNR | SuperNova Rate | |
| SNR | SuperNova Remnant | |
| SOHO | SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory | |
| SSDI | Simultaneous Spectral DifferentialImaging | |
| SSO | Siding Spring Observatory | |
| SSS | |
SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey |
| SWIRE | Spitzer Wide-area InfraRed Extragalactic survey | |
| Sy 1/2 | Seyfert (galaxy) type 1/2 | |
| T | | Top | | |
| T-ReCS | |
Thermal Region Camera & Spectrograph (on Gemini South) |
| TEXES | |
Texas Echelon Cross Echelle Spectrograph |
| U | | Top | | |
| UHECR | Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray | |
| UKST | United Kingdom Schmidt Telescope | |
| ULIRG | Ultra-Luminous InfraRed Galaxy | |
| UNSW | |
University of New South Wales |
| UV | UltraViolet | |
| UVOIR | UltraViolet-Optical-InfraRed | |
| UVOT | |
UV/Optical Telescope (onboard Swift) |
| V | | Top | | |
| VLA | |
Very Large Array |
| VLBA | Very Long Baseline Array | |
| VLBI | Very Long Baseline Interferometry | |
| VLT | Very Large Telescope | |
| W | | Top | | |
| WMAP | |
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe |
| WSRT | |
Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope |
| X | | Top | | |
| XBONG | X-ray Bright Optically Normal Galaxy | |
| XMM | Xray Multi-Mirror telescope | |
| XRT | |
X-Ray Telescope (onboard Swift) |
| xNTD | extended New Technology Demonstrator | |
| Y | | Top | | |
| Z | | Top | |