| Acronym | Definition |
|---|---|
| AASC | Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee |
| AAT | Anglo-Australian Telescope |
| ADC | atmospheric dispersion compensator |
| AGN | active galactic nuclei |
| ALMA | Atacama Large Millimeter Array |
| AO | adaptive optics |
| ARC | Astronomy Research Consortium |
| ATST | Advanced Technology Solar Telescope |
| ATT | Advanced Technology Telescope |
| BTO | beam transfer optics |
| CCD | Charge-coupled device |
| CELT | California Extremely Large Telescope |
| CfA | Center for Astrophysics |
| CFD | computational fluid dynamics |
| CIV | corona inception voltage |
| CMBR | Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation |
| CMD | color magnitude diagrams |
| COBE | Cosmic Background Explorer |
| DCR | differential chromatic refraction |
| DIMM | differential image motion monitor |
| DM | deformable mirror |
| ELT | extremely large telescope |
| ESO | European Southern Observatory |
| FOV | field of view |
| FPGAs | field programmable gate arrays |
| FSR | free spectral range |
| FWHM | full width half-maximum |
| GIS | Geographical Information Systems |
| GNIRS | Gemini near-infrared spectrograph |
| GOES | Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite |
| GSM | Generalized Seeing Monitor |
| GSMT | Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope |
| GTC | Gran Telescopio Canarias |
| HDF | Hubble Deep Field |
| HDRI | high dynamic range imaging |
| HET | Hobby-Eberly Telescope |
| HIRES | high resolution echelle spectrograph |
| IFTS | imaging Fourier transform spectrographs |
| IFU | integral field unit |
| IGM | Intergalactic Medium |
| IMF | initial mass function |
| INAOE | Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica |
| ISM | Interstellar Medium |
| KMF | K-band luminosity function |
| LAMOST | Large Aperture Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope |
| LBT | Large Binocular Telescope |
| LCRS | Las Campanas Redshift Survey |
| LGS | laser guide star |
| LLT | laser launch telescopes |
| LMT | Large Millimeter Telescope |
| LSST | Large-aperture Synoptic Survey Telescope |
| LVTD | linear variable differential transformer |
| MAP | Microwave Anisotropy Probe |
| MASS | multi-aperture scintillation sensor |
| MCAO | multi-conjugate adaptive optics |
| MEIFU | million element integral field unit |
| MEMS | Micro Electrical Mechanical Systems |
| MIHDAS | mid-IR high dispersion AO-fed spectrograph |
| MK | Mauna Kea |
| MMT | Multiple Mirror Telescope |
| MOMFOS | multi-object multi-fiber optical spectrograph |
| MRF | magneto-rheological finishing |
| NCEP | National Center for Environmental Protection |
| NGS | natural guide star |
| NGST | Next Generation Space Telescope |
| NICMOS | near-infrared camera and multi-object spectrometer |
| NIF | National Ignition Facility |
| NIFS | near-infrared integral-field spectrograph |
| NIO | New Initiatives Office |
| NIRDIF | near-infrared deployable integral field spectrograph |
| NIrES | near infra-red echelle spectrograph |
| OPD | optical path difference |
| OSIRIS | OH suppressing infrared imaging spectrograph |
| OWL | overwhelmingly large telescope |
| PMS | pre-main sequence |
| PSD | power spectral density |
| PSF | point spread function |
| PWV | precipitable water vapor |
| QSO | quasi-stellar object |
| RMS | root mean square |
| RSS | root sum squares |
| SALT | Southern African Large Telescope |
| SBIG | Santa Barbara Instrument Group |
| SCIDAR | Scintillation Detection and Ranging |
| SDSS | Sloan Digital Sky Survey |
| SED | spectral energy distribution |
| SIRFT | Space Infrared Telescope Facility |
| SKA | Square Kilometer Array |
| SODAR | Sonic Detection and Ranging |
| SPIFFI | spectrometer for infrared fiber-fed field imaging |
| SSC | super star clusters |
| TIM | Mexican Infrared-Optical Telescope |
| TPF | Terrestrial Planet Finder |
| UH | University of Hawai'i |
| UKIRT | United Kingdom Infrared Telescope |
| UNAM | Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico |
| VLT | very large telescope |
| VPH | volume-phase holographic |
| WFS | Wide-Field Survey (in science-oriented material) |
| WFS | wavefront sensor |
|
March 2002
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