| Acronym | Description |
| A/D |
Analogue to digital |
| AFOV |
Apparent field of view |
| AIP |
Astronomical image processing |
| APO |
Apochromatic |
| ASCOM |
Astronomy Common Object Module (set of common mount interface standards) |
| ASV |
Astronomical Society of Victoria |
| ATM |
Amateur telescope making (or manufacture) |
| ATS |
Advanced Telescope Supplies (in Sydney) |
| AU |
Astronomical Unit (measure of interplanetary distances) |
| AVI |
Audio video interleaved (file format) |
| BMP |
Bitmap (a picture file type) |
| bps |
bits per second (data transfer rate) |
| CAT |
Catadioptric |
| CCD |
Charge-coupled device |
| CDC |
Cartes du Ciel (skychart software) |
| CG |
Centre of gravity |
| CMOS |
Complementary metal oxide semiconductor |
| DMK |
Daten Mono Kamera (catalogue identifier of ImagingSource GmbH) |
| DOB |
Dobsonian telescope (not really an acronym) |
| DRAM |
Dynamic RAM |
| DSC |
Digital Setting Circle (eg Argo Navis) |
| DSI |
Deep sky imager (Meade product) |
| DSO |
Deep sky object |
| DTC |
Digital Telescope Computer (eg Argo Navis) |
| ED |
Extralow dispersion |
| EFR |
Emerging flux region (on our sun) |
| EP |
Eye piece |
| EQ |
Equatorial |
| ET |
Ephemeris time |
| FAQ |
Frequently asked questions |
| FIR |
Far infra red |
| FL |
Focal length |
| FLI |
Finger Lakes Instrumentation Co. |
| FMC |
Fully multi coated |
| FOV |
Field of view |
| FTA |
Field transition arch (on our sun) |
| FTP |
File transfer protocol |
| FUV |
Far ultra violet |
| GCVS |
General catalogue of variable stars |
| GEM |
German Equatorial Mount |
| GLP |
Green laser pointer |
| GMT |
Greenwich mean time |
| GPS |
Global positioning system |
| GRS |
Great red spot (on Jupiter) |
| GSO |
Guan Sheng Optical |
| HA (or Ha) |
Hydrogen alpha (light spectrum) |
| Hb |
Hydrogen beta (light spectrum emission line) |
| HC |
Hand controller |
| HD |
Henry Draper (DSO catalogue) |
| HDRI |
High dynamic range imaging (or just HDR) |
| HF |
High frequency |
| HST |
Hubble space telescope |
| IC |
Index Catalogue (of DSOs) |
| IR |
Infra red (light) |
| IIS |
IceInSpace |
| IMO |
In my opinion |
| IMHO |
In my humble opinion (usually not being very humble at the time) |
| JPG or JPEG |
|
| LB |
Light Bridge (Meade DOB design) |
| ISS |
International Space Station |
| LMC |
Large Magellanic cloud |
| LPI |
Lunar planetary imager (Meade product) |
| LPR |
Light pollution reduction |
| LRGB |
Luminance Red Green Blue |
| LSB |
Low surface brightness (ie, dim!) |
| LST |
Local sidereal time |
| LV |
Lanthanum Vixen |
| LVW |
Lanthanum Vixen Widefield |
| M |
Messier (DSO catalogue) |
| MAS |
My Astro Shop |
| MCT |
Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope |
| mW |
milliWatt, = 0.001 W |
| NGC |
New General Catalogue (of DSOs) |
| NLV |
New lanthanum Vixen (eyepiece) |
| NPB |
Narrow pass band |
| NPL |
New Plossl (Vixen eyepiece) |
| OAG |
Off axis guide |
| OIII |
Oxygen III (or 3) (light spectrum emission line) |
| OT |
Off-Topic (post) |
| OTA |
Optical tube assembly |
| PAE |
Pointing Accuracy Enhancement (feature of GoTo mount) |
| PE |
Periodic error |
| PEC |
Periodic error correction |
| PHD |
Push Here Dummy (astrophotography software) |
| PITA |
Pain in the Arse |
| Pn |
Planetary nebula |
| PM |
Private Message (between two forum members) |
| POTH |
Plain old telescope handset |
| PST |
Personal solar telescope (Coronado product) |
| QE |
Quantum Efficiency (CCD Camera type) |
| RA |
Right ascension |
| RACI |
Right angle correct image |
| RAM |
Random Access Memory |
| RC |
Ritchey-Chretien |
| RCOS |
RC Optical Systems Co. |
| RCW |
Rodgers Campbell Whiteoak Catalogue (of DSOs) |
| RGB |
Red green blue |
| SB |
Surface brightness |
| SBIG |
Santa Barbara Instrument Group |
| SCT |
Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope |
| SD |
Super-low dispersion |
| SDM |
Size Does Matter (Australian Telescope Maker Peter Read's motto) |
| SLR |
Single lens reflex (camera) |
| SMA |
Super modified achromat |
| SMC |
Small Magellanic cloud |
| SPED |
Saxon premium ED |
| SQM |
Sky Quality Meter (brightness reading) |
| STV |
SBIG televison (camera) |
| SV |
Super view |
| SWA |
Super wide angle |
| SXV |
Starlight Xpress something |
| TEC |
Telescope Engineering Company |
| TFOV |
True field of view |
| TLA |
Three letter acronym (like this) |
| TMB |
Thomas M. Back (of TMB Optical Co) |
| TOA |
Triplet orthoscopic apochromat (Takahashi design) |
| UHC |
Ultra high contrast |
| UO |
University Optics |
| USB |
Universal serial bus (data transport) |
| UT |
Universal time |
| UTA |
Upper tube assembly (of truss Dobs) |
| UV |
Ultra violet (light) |
| UWA |
Ultra wide angle |
| WO |
William Optics |
