Credit: Graphic for Space.com by Karl Tate; Eagle Nebula: ASA, ESA/Hubble and the Hubble Heritage Team)
Ik blijf even bij de lijstjes. Vanochtend een lijstje met de 106 spullen die Neil Armstrong en Buzz Aldrin in juli 1969 achterlieten op de maan, nu eentje met astronomische afkortingen. Bij de Harvard Universiteit houden ze ‘m bij, de lijst met ‘Dumb Or Overly Forced Astronomical Acronyms Site‘ (DOOFAAS). En geloof het of niet, maar ze bestaan echt. Neem bijvoorbeeld POOPSY, dat staat voor ‘Phase One Observing Proposal SYstem’ en dat via de Universiteit van Hawaï wordt uitgevoerd – zie de website. Er staan afkortingen op die we (min of meer) wel kennen, zoals OSIRIS-REx van de NASA, de Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer, die binnenkort bij planetoïde Bennu monsters gaat nemen. Maar de meeste afkortingen zullen toch wel onbekend zijn, denk ik…. ook voor mij. 
Ehhh… is ‘ie incompleet, zoals de titel van de blog luidt? Jazeker! Afkortingen zoals Pan-STARRS (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) en NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object WISE) ontbreken.
| Afkorting | Betekenis (met hier en daar wat commentaar van de Harvard-luitjes) |
|---|---|
| 11HUGS | 11 Mpc Halpha and Ultraviolet Galaxy Survey (Yowza. We have a winner!) |
| 2D-FRUTTI | 2-D Photon Counting System (I swear, I didn't make this up. It was on CTIO as best I can tell. Manual here) |
| 2MASS | Two Micron All-Sky Survey |
| 25BEARS | ??? It's on ASTE. I need specifics |
| 5MUSES | 5 Mjy Unbiased Spitzer Extragalactic Survey (in Acronym mode, their 5 mJy survey seems less impressive in it's senstivity) |
| ABRACADABRA | A Broadband/Resonant Approach to Cosmic Axion Detection with an Amplifying B-field Ring Apparatus (sounds like magic to me) |
| ACBAR | Arcminute Cosmology Bolometer Array Receiver ("It's a photon trap!") |
| ACE | Advanced Composition Explorer |
| ADIoS | Aste Dense gas Imaging Of Spiral galaxies (an AMFA: Acronym Made From Acronyms) |
| ADONIS | Adaptive Optics Near-Infrared System |
| AESOP | An Extensive Symbolic Optics Package |
| AGAPE | Andromeda Galaxy and Amplified Pixel Experiment |
| AGHAST | A Grism H-Alpha SpecTroscopic survey (seems like only yesterday I was agape) |
| AIM | Astrometric Interferometry Mission |
| AIPS | Astronomical Image Processing System |
| ALEXIS | Array of Low Energy X-ray Imaging Sensors |
| ALFA | Adaptive optics with Lasers For Astronomy |
| ALFA | Arecibo L-band Feed Array |
| ALFAFA | Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey (technically you have Arecibo in there twice) |
| ALHAMBRA | Advanced LArge, Homogeneous Area Medium Band Redshift Astronomical survey |
| ALPO | Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers |
| AMANDA | Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array |
| AMASE | Astrophysics Multispectral Archive Search Engine |
| AMBER | Astronomical MultiBEam Recombiner |
| ANCHORS | AN archive of CHandra Observations of Regions of Star formation (Woweee. That's terrible) |
| ANDICAM | A Novel Dual Imaging CAMera |
| ANDREAS | Advanced Name Designer REgarding Astronomical Systems (Bryan Gaensler's astro-acro informant) |
| ANIS | All Neutrino Interaction Simulation (LOL!) |
| ANTARES | Astronomy with a Neutrino Telescope and Abyss environmental RESearch (whatever that means) |
| APHID | Atmospheric PHase Inference Device |
| APOGEE | APO Galaxy Evolution Experiment (AMFA!) |
| APT | Asia Pacific Telescope |
| ARCADE | Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission |
| ARCSEC | Association of Roman Catholics for the promotion of Space Exploration and Colonization |
| ARIES | Arizona Infrared Imager and Echelle Spectrograph |
| ARISE | Advanced Radio Interferometry between Space and Earth |
| ARISTOTELES | Applications and Research Involving Space Technologies Observing the Earth's field from Low Earth orbiting Satellite |
| ARMPIT | ASKAP Rotation Measure and Polarisation InvestigaTion (an AMFA: ASKAP=Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder) |
| ARTEMIS | Advanced Relay TEchnology MISsion |
| ASTER | Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emmision and Reflection |
| AST/RO | Antarctic Submillimeter Telescope and Remote Observatory |
| ATLAS | Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science |
| ATLASGAL | |
| AURA | Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy |
| AVIRIS | Airborne Visible/InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer |
| AVOCADO | A Virtual Observatory Census to Address Dwarfs Origins (from a short podium I imagine) |
| AzTEC | The AZtronomical Thermal Emission Camera (that's cheating) |
| BACODINE | BATSE COordinate DIstribution NEtwork (BATSE=Burst And Transient Source Experiment) |
| BAD | Balmer-Absorption-Dominated (Nuclei) |
| BAM | Balloon-bourne Anisotropy Measurement |
| BaR-SPOrt | BAlloon-bourne Radiometers for Sky Polarisation ObseRvaTions (honestly) |
| BATMAN | Bad-Ass Transit Model cAlculatioN (someone knows the game) |
| BEER | BEaming, Ellipsoidal & Reflection effects (mmmm, BERE) |
| BICEP | Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (feel the burn) |
| BIGASS | Bright Infrared Galaxy All Sky Survey (J. Howell is still a winner in my book!) |
| BIGRAT | BIcentennial Gamma RAy Telescope |
| BiSON | Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network |
| BLAST | Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Sub-millimeter Telescope |
| BLISS | Background-Limited Infrared-Submillimeter Spectrograph |
| BLOSM | Broad band and Large area x-ray Omni Sky Monitor |
| BOOJUMS | Blue Objects Observed Just Undergoing Moderate Starbursts (`Boojums' is from Lewis Carrolls poem ``The Hunting of the Snark'') |
| BOOMERanG | Balloon Observations Of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation and Geophysics |
| BRITE | BRIght Target Explorer (creating an acronym just to mis-spell the word bright?) |
| CAFE | CAssegrain Fiber Environment |
| CANDELS | Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey |
| CANGAROO | Collaboration between Australian and Nippon for a Gamma Ray Observatory in the Outback (krazy!) |
| CARA | Centre for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica |
| CARMA | Combined Array for Research in Millimetre-wave Astronomy |
| CASA-BLANCA | Chicago Air Shower Array - Broad LAteral Non-imaging Cerenkov Array |
| CASIMIR | CAltech Submillimeter Interstellar Medium Investigations Receiver |
| CASPIR | Cryogenic Array SPectrometer ImageR |
| CASTLES | Cfa/Arizona Space Telescope LEns Survey |
| CAT | Cosmic Anisotropy Telescope |
| ChAOS | Chicago Adaptive Optics System |
| CHARA | Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy |
| CHASE | Coronal Helium Abundance Spacelab Experiment |
| CHIPS | Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer |
| CIAO | Chandra Interactive Analysis of Observations |
| CIRPASS | Cambridge InfraRed PAnoramic Survey Spectrograph |
| CIRRIS | Cryogenic InfraRed Radiance Instrument for Shuttle |
| CIRSI | Cambridge InfraRed Survey Instrument (as in Cerse, the daughter of sun god Helius) |
| CISCO | Cooled Infrared Spectrograph and Camera for OHS |
| COAST | Cambridge Optical Aperature Synthesis Telescope |
| COAST | Cambridge Optical Aperature Synthesis Telescope |
| CLOUD | Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets (huh?) |
| COBRA | Cadmium-zinc-telluride O-neutrino double-Beta Research Apparatus (The "O" is for "Zero" 0f c0urse) |
| COBRAS/SAMBA | COsmic Background Radiation Anisotropy Satellite/SAtellite to Measure Background Anisotropies |
| COCOA-PUFS | COordinated Campaign of Observations and Analysis, Photosphere to Upper atmosphere, of a Fast-rotating Star (I'm coo coo for a ridiculous acronym!) |
| COHSI | Cambridge OH Suppresion Instrument |
| COINS | CSOs Observed In Northern Sky |
| COMPLETE | COodinated Molecular Probe Line Extinction Thermal Emissio (survey) |
| COMPLEX | COMmittee on Planetary and Lunar spave EXploration |
| CORNEA | Corrective Optics R? N? Emmending Atmosphere (would you believe on IRIS ?) |
| COSMOS | CoOrdinates, Sizes, Magnitudes, Orientations, and Shapes |
| COSTAR | Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement |
| COLA | Compact Objects in Low power Agns |
| COME ON+ | ? (Adaptive Optics on ESO 3.6 m Telescope) |
| COMPASS | COsmic Microwave Polarization At Small Scales |
| CONICA | COude Near Infrared CamerA |
| COW | Committee Of the Wise (scheduling committee for WET) |
| COYOTES | Coordinated Observations of Young ObjecTs from Earthbound Sites |
| CREAM | Cosmic Radiation Effects and Activatiom Monitor |
| CUBIC | Cosmic Unresolved Background Instrument using CCD's |
| DAISY | Data Acquisition and Interpretation System |
| DASI | Degree Angular Scale Interferometer/td> |
| DAZLE | Dark Ages Z (redshift) Lyman-alpha Explorer |
| DEBRA | Diffuse Extragalactic Background RAdiation |
| DEBRIS | Disc Emission via a Bias-free Reconnaissance in the Infrared/Sub-millimetre (not bad...) |
| DEEP | Deep Extragalactic Evolutionary Probe |
| DEERS | Deeply Embedded Energetic Radio Sources |
| DEIMOS | Deep Extragalactic Imaging Multi Object Spectrograph |
| DENIS | DEep Near Infrared Survey of the Southern Sky |
| DIGIT | Dust, Ice, and Gas In Time (everything in time...) |
| DIMES | DIffuse Microwave Emission Survey |
| DIRT | Dust InfraRed Toolbox |
| DIVA | Deutsches Interferometer fuer Vielkanalphotometry und Astrometrie |
| DIXI | Deep Impact eXtended Investigation |
| DONUT | Direct Observation of NU Tau |
| DRAGN | Double Radio sources Associated with Galactic Nuclei |
| DUO | Disk Unseen Objects |
| DUNES | DUst disks around NEarby Stars |
| DUPLEX | DUst-Prominent Longitudinally-EXtended |
| EGG | Evaporating Gaseous Globule |
| EGRET | Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope |
| EIDERS | Externally Ionized Disks in the Environs of Radiation Sources |
| ELFS | Extremely Luminous Far-infrared Sources |
| EPOCh | Extrasolar Planet Observations and Characterization (see below for evolution) |
| EPOXI | The result of merging the EPOCh and DIXI missions (an AMFAMFA, Acronym Made From AMFAs) |
| EROS | Expérience de Recherche d'Objects Sombres |
| ESP | ESO Slice Project (an AMFA) |
| ETC | Explosive Transient Camera |
| EURECA | EUropean REtrievable CArrier |
| FAME | Fizeau Astrometric Mapping Explorer |
| FaNTOmM | Fabry-perot of New Technology for the Observatoire du mont Megantic (wow... just wow) |
| FAST | Fast Auroral SnapshoT explorer |
| FASTSOUND | Fmos Ankoku Shindou Tansa Subaru Observation Understanding Nature of Dark energy (A multilanguage AMFA. FMOS is 'Fiber Multi-Object Spectrograph' and Ankoku Shindou Tansa is Japanese for 'Dark Oscillation Survey' |
| FATBOY | The Florida Analysis Tool Born of Yearning for high-quality scientific data (this may be the worse... or best yet) |
| FAUST | FAr-Ultraviolet Space Telescope |
| FIBRE | Fabry-perot Interferometer Bolometer Research Experiment |
| FIDEL | Far Infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy |
| FIFI | Far Infrared Fabry-perot Interferometer |
| FIGARO | French Italian GAmma Ray Observatory |
| FILM | Far Infrared Line Mapper |
| FIREFLY | Fitting IteRativEly For Likelihood analYsis (I admire the commitment to the cause!) |
| FIRST | Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-centimeters |
| FITS | Flexible Image Transport System |
| FLAIR | Fibre Linked Array Image Reformatter |
| FLAMINGOS | FLoridA Multi-object Imaging Near-infrared Grism Observational Spectrometer (eek) |
| FLIERS | Fast, Low-Ionization Emission RegionS |
| FLITECAM | First Light Infrared Test Experiment CAMera (it's on SOFIA, so it really is a flying camera. Good work!) |
| FORCAST | Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope (Also an AMFA; Thanks to Luke Keller) |
| FORT | Foyer Optimise pour le RadioTelescope (FORT="strong" in French) |
| FOXES | Fluctuating Optical and X-ray Emitting Sources |
| FRED | Fast RisE, rapid Decay (pulse structure in pulsars) |
| FROG | Faint Red Outlier Galaxy |
| FUC | Far Ultraviolet Camera |
| FUCR | Far Ultra-Chromatic Rocket (thanks to Will Marchant) |
| FUSE | Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer |
| GAIA | Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics |
| GADZOOKS! | Gadolinium Antineutrino Detector Zealously Outperforming Old Kamiokande, Super! (PI insists on the exclaimation point! Awesome!) |
| GALAPAGOS | Galaxy Analysis over Large Areas: Parameter Assessment by Galfitting Objects from Sextractor (took some work!) |
| GANDALF | Gas AND Absorption Line Fitting algorithm (pushed all the right nerd buttons) |
| GASP | Gamma-rays At the South Pole |
| GASP | Guide star selection system Astrometric Support Package |
| GASPS | GAS in Protoplanetary Systems |
| GEMS | Glasses Embedded Metals and Sulfides |
| GIMP | Geo-magnetically induced Image Motion Problem (on HST) |
| GISMO | Goddard-Iram Superconducting 2-Millimeter Observer (the '2' is silent. I guess GITMO was inappropriate)) |
| GENIUS | GErmanium liquid NItrogen Underground Setup |
| GIPSY | Groningen Image Processing SYstem |
| GLIMPSE | GLobal IMPlicit SEarch |
| GLIMPSE | Galactic Legacy Infrared MidPlane Survey Extraordinaire |
| GOALS | Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey (another AMFA!) |
| GOBELINS | GOuld's BELt dIstaNces Survey (work it!) |
| GOES | Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites |
| GOD | Gravity One Dimension (The paper was entitled `The likelihood of GODs' existence'...) |
| GONG | Global Oscillations Network Group |
| GOODS | Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey |
| GNAT | Global Network of Astronomical Telescopes |
| GRAPE | GRAvity PipE |
| GRAPES | GRism Acs Program for Extragalactic Science |
| GRASP | Gamma-Ray Astronomy with Spectroscopy and Positioning |
| GREAT | German REceiver for Astronomy at Terahetz frequencies (it'd better be good!) |
| GUPPI | Green bank Ultimate Pulsar Processing Instrument (like PUPPI) |
| HARP | Hermite AcceleratoR Pipe |
| HAWAII | HgCdTe Astronomical Wide Area Infrared Imager |
| HEAD | High Energy Astrophysics Division |
| HEAT | High-Energy Antimatter Telescope |
| HELLAS | High-Energy Large Area Survey (I don't know where the extra L came from, but I think Hellas is the ancient name for Greece.) |
| HERB | High Energy Resolution Burst |
| HERITAGE | HERschel Inventory of The Agents of Galaxy Evolution (agents?) |
| HERMES | HERschel M33 Extended Survey |
| HEROES | HERschel Observations Edge-on Spirals |
| HIFI | Hawaii Imaging Fabry-perot Interferometer |
| HIPPARCOS | HIgh Precision PARallax COllecting Satellite (I genuinely did not know this was an acronym until readers pointed out I missed it :P) |
| HIPPIES | Hubble Infrared Pure Parallel Imaging Extragalactic Survey |
| HIS/HERS | High Intensity Spectrograph / High Energy Range Spectrometer |
| HO-BAGS | Hubble Observatory BAckground Galaxy Survey |
| HOEs | Holographic Optical Elements |
| H0LiCOW | H0 Lenses in COSMOGRAILs Wellspring (A subscript as an acronyn, AND an AMFA! Great on so many levels) |
| HOPS | Herschel Orion Protostar Survey |
| Hot DOGs | Hot Dust-Obscured Galaxies |
| IDEA | Initiative to Develop Education through Astronomy |
| INTEGRAL | INTErnational Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory |
| IOTA | Infrared and Optical Telescope Array |
| IRAC | InfraRed Array Camera |
| IRIS | Infra Red Imager Spectrograph |
| JACARA | Joint Australian Centre for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica |
| JADES | JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (an AMFA!) |
| JAGUAR | JAdes extraGalactic Ultradeep Artificial Realizations (an AMFAMFA!) |
| JAVELIN | Just Another Vehicle for Estimating Lags In Nuclei (formerly known as SPEAR, see below) |
| JIVE | Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe |
| KARMEN | Karlsruhe Appleton Rutherford Medium Neutrino Experiment |
| KASCADE | KArlsruhe Shower Core and Array DEtector |
| KINGFISH | Key Insights on Nearby Galaxies: a Far-Infrared Survey with Herschel |
| KISS | KPNO International Spectroscopic Survey |
| KNAC | Keck Northeast Astronomy Consortium |
| KOSMA | Kölner Observatorium für Submillimeter Astronomie |
| LACE | Low power Atmospheric Compensation Experiment |
| LALA | Large Area Lyman Alpha survey |
| LAMOST | Large sky Area Mulit Object fiber Spectrscopic Telescope |
| LAMP | Lick AGN Monitoring Project (AMFA) |
| LEST | Large Earth-based Solar Telescope |
| LIGHT | Light Interferometer satellite for the studies of Galactic Halo Tracers |
| LINERS | Low Ionization Nuclear Emission-line Regions |
| LIRIS | Long slit Intermediate Resolution Intrared Spectrograph |
| LISA | Laser Interfeter Space Antenna |
| LUCIFER | LBT near infrared spectroscopic Utility with Camera and Integral Field Unit for Extragalactic Research (apparently most of that is silent, and and AMFA) |
| MACAO | Multi-Application Curvature Adaptive Optics |
| MACHO | MAssive Compact Halo Objects |
| MACRO | Monopoles, Astrophysics, and Cosmic Ray Observatory |
| MAGES | MIPS AGN and Galaxy Evolution Survey (a double AMFA!) |
| MAGNUM | Multicolor Active Galactic Nuclei Monitoring project |
| MAMA | Multi-Anode Microchannel Array |
| MAMBO | MAx-planck-Millimeter-BOlometer |
| MANGA | MApping Nearby Galaxies at Apache point observatory |
| MAP | Microwave Anisotropy Probe |
| MAPS | Minnesota Automated Plate Scanner |
| MARTINI | Multi-Aperture Real Time Image NormalIzation system |
| MASCARA | Multi-site All-Sky CAmeRA |
| MASSIF | Masses and Stellar Systems with InterFerometry |
| MAX | Millimeter wave Anisotropy eXperiment |
| MAXIMA | Millimeter wave Anisotropy eXperiment IMaging Array |
| MBONE | Multicast BackbONE |
| MERLIN | Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network |
| MESSENGER | MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging (I geniunely didn't realize this was an acronym!) |
| MIAOW | Minimum Inertia Adaptive Optics Widget |
| MICE | Muons in ICE |
| MICHELLE | Mid-Infrared eCHELLE spectrograph |
| MIDAS | Munich Image Data Analysis System |
| MIDGet | Millimeter Interferometry of Dwarf Galaxies (adding letters to be offensive?, especially when they prefer to be called "little galaxies") |
| MIME | Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions |
| MIRA | Mitaka optical and Infra-Red interferometer Array |
| MIRAC | Mid InfraRed Array Camera |
| MIRACLE | Mid-InfraRed Array Camera of Least Effort |
| MIRIAD | Multichannel Image Reconstruction, Image Analysis and Display |
| MIRLIN | Mid-InfraRed Large Imager (the 'N' doesn't stand for anything!) |
| MOMI | Manchester Occulting Mask Imager |
| MONICA | MONtreal Infrared CAmera |
| MOSAIC | MDM/Ohio State/ALADDIN Infrared Camera (really!) |
| MOST | Microvariability and Oscillations of STars |
| MOST | Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope |
| MUNICS | MUnich Near-Infrared Cluster Survey (awesome) |
| MUSE | Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer |
| MUSICOS | MUlit-SIte COordinated Spectroscopy |
| NANOGRAV | North American Nanohertz Observatory for GRAVitational waves |
| NEAT | Near Earth Asteriod Tracking (telescope) |
| NHEMESES | New HErshel Multi-wavelength Extragalactic Survey of Edge-on Spirals |
| NIRI | Near InfraRed Imager |
| NITE | Near-Infrared Telescope Experiment |
| NOT | Nordic Optical Telescope |
| OASIS | Optically Adaptive System for Imaging Spectroscopy |
| OGLE | Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment |
| OHANA | Optical Hawaiian Array for Nanoradian Astronomy (A plan to join Mauna Kea optical observatories into one interferometer. Ohana is Hawaiian for 'family'. OK, this one is good.) |
| OPAL | Orbiting Picosat Automatic Launcher |
| OPUS | Observations support/post-observation data Processing Unified System (good god!) |
| ORFEUS | Orbiting and Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer |
| OSCAR | Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio |
| OSCIR | Observatory Spectrometer Camera for the InfraRed |
| OSIRIS | Optical Space Interferometer: Russian Instrument for Stellar astronomy |
| OSIRIS-REx | Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (I would have worked harder to make TYRANNOSIRIS-REx) |
| OWL | Overwhelmingly Large Telescope (so big, it's ridiculous) |
| PAPER | Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization |
| PEARS | Probing Evolution And Reionization Spectroscopically |
| PEPSI | Potsdam Echelle Polarimetric and Spectroscopic Instrument (their logo is gloriously close to copyright infringement; pepsi.aip.de |
| PHaEDRA | Preserving Harvard's Early Data and Research in Astronomy |
| PHEBUS | Payload for High Energy BUrst Spectroscopy |
| PIG | Partially Ionized Globule |
| PINOCCHIO | PINpointing Orbit-Crossing Collapsed HIerarchial Objects (Egad!) |
| PINTofALE | Package for the INTeractive Analysis of Line Emission (E for Effort, but this is PINTAofLE) |
| PIQUE | Princeton IQU Experiment |
| PIT | Phase 1 Tool (for Gemini, replacing POOPSY) |
| PLANET | Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork |
| POEM | Polar Orbiting Earth Mission |
| POINTS | Precision Optical INTerferometer in Space |
| POLAR | Polarization Observations of Large Angular Regions (what's an angular region?) |
| POLARBEAR | POLARization of the Background millimEter bAckground Radiation (very weak) |
| POOPSY | Phase One Observing Proposal SYstem |
| POST | POlar Stratosperic Telescope |
| PRESTO | Project to Re-Engineer Space Telescope Observing |
| PROSAC | PROtostellar Submillimetre Array Campaign (a pretty hard campaign) |
| PUPPI | Puerto rican Ultimate Pulsar Processing Instrument (like GUPPI) |
| QUEST | Q and U Extra-galactic Sub-mm Telescope |
| QUIJOTE | Q-U-I JOint TEnerife (30 GHz Polarimeter) |
| QUIRC | QUick InfRared Camera |
| RASSCALS | ROSAT All-Sky Survey-Center for Astrophysics Loose Systems (yet another AMFA) |
| RATTS | Run Away T-Tauri Stars |
| RAVE | the RAdial Velocity Experiment |
| RESCEU | RESearch Center for the Early Universe |
| RICE | Radio Ice Cerenkov Experiment |
| SAFARI | SpicA FAR-infrared Instrument (an AMFA!) |
| SAGA | Solar Array Gain Augmentation |
| SAGE | Surveying the Agents of a Galaxy's Evolution (overly forced!) |
| SAGES | Study of the Astrophysics of Globular clusters in Extragalactic Systems |
| SARA | Satellite pour Astronomie Radio Amateur |
| SASS | Standard Analysis Software System |
| SASS | Spitzer Atlas of Stellar Spectra |
| SAX | Satellite per Astronomia X (its Italian) |
| SAURON | Spectroscopic Areal Unit for Research on Optical Nebulae (mmmm, nerdy) |
| SCAR | Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research |
| SCORE | SIRTF-CORnell Echelle |
| SCUBA | Submillimeter Common-User Bolometer Array |
| SEQUOIA | SEcond QUabbin Optical Imaging Array |
| SERENDIP | Search for Extraterrestrial Radio Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations |
| SERTS | Solar EUV Rocket Telescope Spectrograph |
| SERVS | Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey |
| SGARFACE | Short GAmma Ray Front AirCerenkov Experiment (Sweet misspelled goodness) |
| SHARC | Submillimeter High Angular Resolution Camera (eats SCUBA alive they claim) |
| SHARE | Space station Heat pipe Advanved Radiator Element |
| SHARP | System for High-Angular-Resolution Pictures |
| SHEEP | Search for the High Energy Extragalactic Population |
| SHIT | Super Huge Interferometric Telescope (look for yourself) |
| SiEGMuND | Simulation of Events with Geant for Muon and Neutrino Detectors |
| SIGMA | Systeme d'Imagerie Gamma a Masque Aleatoire |
| SIMBAD | Set of Identifications, Measurements and Bibliography for Astronomical Data |
| SIMPLE | Spitzer IRAC/MUSYC Public Legacy survey in the Extended chandra deep field south (Wow, SIMPLSECDFS?) |
| SINFONI | the SINgle Faint Object Near-infrared Investigation |
| SINGS | SIRTF Infrared Nearby Galaxy Survey (an AMFA) |
| SIMPLE | Superheated Instrument for Massive ParticLe Experiments |
| SLAP | Space Link Access Protocol |
| SMAC | Streaming Motions of Abel Clusters |
| SMIRFS | Sub Millimeter InfraRed Fiber-feed System (or something) |
| SMOG | Spitzer Mapping of the Outer Galaxy |
| SMUDGES | Systematic Multiwavelength Unbiased catalog of Dwarf Galaxies and Evolution of Structure (clever and appropriate) |
| SNAP | SuperNova Acceleration Probe |
| SOAR | Southern Observatory for Astrophysical Research |
| SOFIA | Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy |
| SODA | Small Objects DAtabase |
| SOHO | SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory |
| SOLE | Star-Obvious Low-level-Elongated |
| SOLSTICE | SOLar STellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment |
| SONG | Stellar Oscillations Network Group |
| SONG | Survey Of Nearby Galaxies |
| SOONSPOT | Solar Observing Optical Network / Solar Patrol On Tape |
| SOUP | Solar Optical Universal Polarimeter |
| SPAN | Space Physics and Analysis Network |
| SPARTAN | Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for AstroNomy |
| SPASE | South Pole Air ShowEr array |
| SPAS | SPace VLBI Assistance Software |
| SPEAR | Stochastic Process Estimation for Agn Reverberations (now upgraded to JAVELIN, see above) |
| SPECULOOS | Search for habitable Planets Eclipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars (after the cookies from Belgium) |
| SPHERE | Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch instrument |
| SPICA | SPace Infra-red telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics |
| SPICE | Spectro-Photometric Infrared Celestrial Explorer |
| SPIDERS | SPectroscopic IDentification of ERosita Sources |
| SPIFFI | SPectrometer for Infrared Faint Field Imaging |
| SPIFI | South Pole Imaging Fabry-perot Interferometer |
| SPIRAL | Surface Photometry Interactive Reduction and Analysis Library |
| SPIRAL | Segmented Pupil/ Imaging Array Lenses |
| SPIRE | Spectral and Photometric Imaging REceiver for herschel |
| SPLOT | Snapshot survey for Polarised Light in Optical Transients |
| SPOrt | Sky Polarization Observatory (why not ObseRvaTory?) |
| SPOT | Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre |
| SPUDS | Spitzer Public legacy survey of the UKIDSS ultra Deep Survey (weak) |
| SPYBAL | SPectrum Y-BALance |
| SQIID | Simultaneous Quad-color Infrared Imaging Device |
| SQUID | Superconducting QUantum Interference Device |
| SQUIRT | Satellite QUIck Research Testbed |
| STACEE | Solar Tower Atmospheric Cherenkov Effect Experiment |
| STEP | Solar Terrestrial Energy Program |
| SUGAR-RUSH | Studying the Universe with GAlaxy suRveys Revealing the Unlimited in ShangHai (was the meeting in Shanghai just to make the acronym work?) |
| SUMER | Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation |
| SURF | SCUBA User Reduction Facility |
| SUSI | Sydney University Stellar Interferometer |
| SUSPECT | Sydney University SPECTrograph |
| SuZIE | Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Infrared Experiment |
| STEFFI | Spectrograph-TElescope Fibre-Feed Interface |
| SWAN | Solar Wind Anisotropy Experiment |
| TADPOL | Telescope Array Doing POLarization |
| TANGOinPARIS | Testing Astroparticle with the New Gev/tev Observations Positrons And electRons : Identifying the Sources (THE WINNER!) |
| TAROT | Telescope a Action Rapide pour les Objets Transitoires |
| TATOOINE | The Attempt To Observe Outer-planets In Non-single-stellar Environments (Genius! Star Wars nerds are the best nerds) |
| TAU | Thousand Astronomical Unit |
| THINGS | The HI Nearby Galaxy Survey (roman numerals as "I"; a first here!) |
| THOR | The Hi/Oh Recombination line survey of the milky way |
| THUMPER | Two HUndred Micron PhotometER |
| TIM | Telescope Image Modelling |
| TIM | (translates to) Mexican Infrared-optical Telescope |
| TNTCAM | Ten aNd Twenty Micron CAMera |
| TOMBO | Transient Observatory for Microlensing and Bursting Objects (Japanese project; telescopes resemble compound insect eyes; Tombo is Japanese for dragonfly) |
| TOMS | Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer |
| TOOT | TexOx-1000 (Oh, I get it, Texas-Oxford One Thousand; weak) |
| T-RECS | Thermal REgion Camera System |
| TRAPPIST | TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope (named after the beer making monks!) |
| TRIFFID | TRansputer Instrument For Fast Image Deconvolution (actually, it had no Transputer chips, and didn't even do deconvolution) |
| UNSWIRF | University of New South Wales Infrared Fabry-Perot (after an unpopular premier of NSW named Barry Unsworth) |
| VERITAS | Very large Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System |
| VESTALE | unVEil the darknesS of The gAlactic buLgE (you are not even trying anymore. UNDARGARB was within reach) |
| VIPER | VIMos Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey |
| VIRGO | Variability in Irradiance and Gravity Oscillations |
| VIRIS | Visual-InfraRed Imaging System |
| VOIR | Venus Orbiting Imaging Radar (voir is french for "to see") |
| WARPS | Wide Angle ROSAT Pointed Survey |
| WASP | Wideband Analog SPectrometer |
| WATCH | Wide Angle Telescope for Cosmic Hard x-rays |
| WET | Whole Earth Telescope |
| WHAM | Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper |
| WIMP | Weakly Interacting Massive Particles |
| WIRE | Wide-field InfraRed Explorer |
| WISARD | Web Interface for Searching Archival Research Data |
| WISEASS | Weizmann Institute of Science Experimental Astrophysics Spectroscopy System |
| WISP | Wide field Imaging Symbiotic Program |
| WITS | Web Infrared ToolShed (has DIRT on it) |
| WOMBAT | Wavelength-Oriented Microwave Background Analysis Team (Go Team! They're playing the Molecular Astrophysics Team for the championship later this week.) |
| WUPPE | Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment |
| YORIC | Yet another Optimal Resolution Image Constructor (Alas...) |
| ZEBRA | Zurich Extragalactic Bayesian Redshift Analyzer |
Bron: Harvard.
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