| Acronym | Solution |
|---|
| 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) |
| 2MASS | Two Micron All-Sky Survey |
| ACBAR | Arcminute Cosmology Bolometer Array Receiver ("It's a photon trap!") |
| ACE | Advanced Composition Explorer |
| ADONIS | Adaptive Optics Near-Infrared System |
| AESOP | An Extensive Symbolic Optics Package |
| AGAPE | Andromeda Galaxy and Amplified Pixel Experiment |
| 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 |
| 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) |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| AURA | Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy |
| AVIRIS | Airborne Visible/InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer |
| 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) |
| BICEP | Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (feel the burn)
|
| BIGRAT | BIcentennial Gamma RAy Telescope |
| BiSON | Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network |
| BLAST | Balloonborne LargeAperture Submillimeter Telescope |
| 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 |
| CAFE | CAssegrain Fiber Environment |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| COBRA | Caltech-OVRO Broadband Reprogrammable Array (an AMFA) |
| COBRAS/SAMBA | COsmic Background Radiation Anisotropy Satellite/SAtellite to Measure Background Anisotropies |
| 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> |
| DEBRA | Diffuse Extragalactic Background RAdiation |
| 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 |
| DIMES | DIffuse Microwave Emission Survey |
| DIRT | Dust InfraRed Toolbox |
| DIVA | Deutsches Interferometer fuer Vielkanalphotometry und Astrometrie |
| DONUT | Direct Observation of NU Tau |
| DUO | Disk Unseen Objects |
| 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 |
| EROS | Expérience de Recherche d'Objects Sombres |
| ESP | ESO Slice Project [This is incidentally an AMFA (Acronym Made From Acronyms; see Chris Taylor's Homepage for more info.)] |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| FIFI | Far Infrared Fabry-perot Interferometer |
| FIGARO | French Italian GAmma Ray Observatory |
| FILM | Far Infrared Line Mapper |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| GASP | Gamma-rays At the South Pole |
| GASP | Guide star selection system Astrometric Support Package |
| 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 |
| GOES | Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites |
| GOD | Gravity One Dimension (The paper was entitled `The likelihood of GODs' existence'...) |
| GONG | Global Oscillations Network Group |
| GNAT | Global Network of Astronomical Telescopes |
| GRAPE | GRAvity PipE |
| GRASP | Gamma-Ray Astronomy with Spectroscopy and Positioning |
| 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 |
| HIFI | Hawaii Imaging Fabry-perot Interferometer |
| HIS/HERS | High Intensity Spectrograph / High Energy Range Spectrometer |
| HO-BAGS | Hubble Observatory BAckground Galaxy Survey |
| HOEs | Holographic Optical Elements |
| 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 |
| JIVE | Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe |
| KARMEN | Karlsruhe Appleton Rutherford Medium Neutrino Experiment |
| KASCADE | KArlsruhe Shower Core and Array DEtector |
| KISS | KPNO International Spectroscopic Survey |
| KNAC | Keck Northeast Astronomy Consortium |
| KOSMA | Kölner Observatorium für Submillimeter Astronomie |
| LACE | Low power Atmospheric Compensation Experiment |
| LAMOST | Large sky Area Mulit Object fiber Spectrscopic Telescope |
| 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 |
| MACHO | MAssive Compact Halo Objects |
| MACRO | Monopoles, Astrophysics, and Cosmic Ray Observatory |
| MAGNUM | Multicolor Active Galactic Nuclei Monitoring project |
| MAMA | Multi-Anode Microchannel Array |
| MAMBO | MAx-planck-Millimeter-BOlometer |
| MAP | Microwave Anisotropy Probe |
| MAPS | Minnesota Automated Plate Scanner |
| MARTINI | Multi-Aperture Real Time Image NormalIzation system |
| 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 |
| MIAOW | Minimum Inertia Adaptive Optics Widget |
| MICE | Muons in ICE |
| MICHELLE | Mid-Infrared eCHELLE spectrograph |
| MIDAS | Munich Image Data Analysis System |
| 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) |
| MUSICOS | MUlit-SIte COordinated Spectroscopy |
| NEAT | Near Earth Asteriod Tracking (telescope) |
| 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 |
| OWL | Overwhelmingly Large Telescope (so big, it's ridiculous) |
| 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) |
| QUEST | Q and U Extra-galactic Sub-mm Telescope |
| QUIRC | QUick InfRared Camera |
| RASSCALS | ROSAT All-Sky Survey-Center for Astrophysics Loose Systems (yet another AMFA) |
| RATTS | Run Away T-Tauri Stars |
| RESCEU | RESearch Center for the Early Universe |
| RICE | Radio Ice Cerenkov Experiment |
| SAGA | Solar Array Gain Augmentation |
| SAGES | Study of the Astrophysics of Globular clusters in Extragalactic Systems |
| SARA | Satellite pour Astronomie Radio Amateur |
| SASS | Standard Analysis Software System |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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) |
| 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 |
| SPICE | Spectro-Photometric Infrared Celestrial Explorer |
| 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 |
| SPOrt | Sky Polarization Observatory (why not ObseRvaTory?) |
| SPOT | Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| TAROT | Telescope a Action Rapide pour les Objets Transitoires |
| TAU | Thousand Astronomical Unit |
| THINGS | The HI Nearby Galaxy Survey (roman numerals as "I"; a first here!) |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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...) |