ESO Glossary of Acronyms
The present list contains the most common acronyms used by ESO, but does not pretend to be complete. A separate Glossary of Astronomical terms is also available.
| ADD | Administration |
| ADONIS | Adaptive Optics Near Infrared System |
| AIT | Assembly, Integration and Testing |
| AIV | Assembly, Integration and Verification |
| ALMA | Atacama Large Millimeter Array |
| alt | altitude |
| AMBER | VLTI Instrument |
| AO | Adaptive Optics |
| APE | Active Phasing Equipment |
| APEX | Atacama Pathfinder Experiment |
| AR, A& R | Adapter Rotator |
| AT | Auxiliary Telescope |
| az | azimuth |
| BOB | Broker for Observation Blocks |
| CB | Control Building |
| CCD | Charge Coupled Device |
| CDR | Critical Design Review |
| CES | Coude Echelle Spectrometer |
| CfT | Call for Tender |
| CNRM | Centre National de Recherche Mé té orologique |
| CoC | ESO Committee of Council |
| CONICA | High-resolution near-infrared camera |
| CRIRES | Cryogenic InfraRed Echelle Spectrometer |
| DARWIN | ESA' s InfraRed Space Interferometer |
| DDT | Director Discretionary Time |
| DDTC | DDT Committee |
| DENIS | Deep Near Infrared Survey |
| DFOSC | Danish Faint Object Spectrograph |
| DFS | Data Flow System |
| DGDF | Director General Discretionary Fund |
| DIMM | Differential Image Motion Monitor |
| DIV | Division |
| DMD | Data Management and operations Division |
| EFOSC | ESO Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera |
| EIS | ESO Imaging Survey |
| FC | ESO Finance Committee |
| FDR | Final Design Review |
| FEROS | Fibre-fed Extended Range Optical Spectrograph |
| FHT | File Handling Tool |
| FIERA | Fast ImagER without Assembly |
| FINITO | Fringe Tracking Instrument Nice Torino |
| FLAMES | Fibre Large Area Multi Element Spectrography |
| FORS | FOcal Reducer/low dispersion Spectrograph |
| FROST | Fast Robotic Observatory System for Transients |
| FSSC | Fellow- and Studentship Selection Committee |
| FTE | Full-Time Equivalent |
| FUEGOS | Fibre Unit for European General Optical Spectroscopy |
| GENIE | Ground European Nulling Interferometer Experiment |
| GIRAFFE | High and Intermediate Resolution Spectrograph |
| GRANTECAN | Gran Telescopio de Canarias |
| GRB | Gamma Ray Burst |
| HARPS | High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planetary Searcher |
| HST | Hubble Space Telescope |
| HW | Hardware |
| IAAB | Indefinite Appointment Advisory Board |
| INS | Instrumentation |
| IR | Infrared |
| IRACE | InfraRed Array Control Electronics |
| ISAAC | Infrared Spectrometer And Array Camera |
| ISAC | Interferometry Science Advisory Committee |
| IT | Information Technology |
| LAN | Local Area Network |
| LCU | Local Control Unit |
| LCS | Local Control System |
| LGS | Laser Guide Star |
| LRP | Long Range Plan |
| LSO | La Silla Observatory |
| MACAO | Multiple Application Concept for Adaptive Optics |
| MAD | MCAO Demonstrator |
| MAP | ALMA Programme |
| MCAO | Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics |
| MCT | Mercury Cadmium Telurite (HgCuTe) |
| MIDI | VLTI Instrument |
| MMB | Mirror Maintenance Building |
| MoU | Memorandum of Understading |
| MPIE | Max-Planck-Institut fü r Extraterrestrische Physik |
| MS | Main Structure |
| NACO | NAOS-CONICA |
| NAOS | Nasmyth Adaptive Optics System |
| NAP | Network Access Point |
| NGS | Natural Guide Star |
| NGST | New Generation Space Telescope |
| NIRMOS | Near InfraRed Multi-Object Spectrograph |
| NOAO | National Optical Astronomy Observatory |
| NRAO | National Radio Astronomy Observatory |
| NTT | New Technology Telescope (3.5 m) |
| ODG | Office of the Director General |
| OLAC | On-Line Archive Client |
| OPC | ESO Observing Programmes Committee |
| OPD | Optical Path Difference |
| OPTICON | Optical Infrared Coordination Network |
| OWL | OverWhelmingly Large |
| OZ-POZ | FLAMES Positioner |
| PAC | Provisional Acceptance Chile |
| PAD | ESO Public Affairs Department |
| EMMI | ESO Multi-Mode Instrument |
| PAE | Preliminary Acceptance Europe |
| PAO | Paranal Observatory |
| PARSCA | PARanal Seeing Campaign |
| PDR | Preliminary Design Review |
| PR | Press Release |
| PRIMA | Phase Referenced Imaging and Micro-arcsec Astrometry |
| PULPO | (name of CCD function controller) |
| QA | Quality Assurance |
| REM | Rapid Eye Mount |
| SBRC | Santa Barbara Research Center |
| SCP | Service Connection Point |
| SEST | Swedish-ESO Submillimetre Telescope |
| SIMBA | SEST IMaging Bolometer Array |
| SINFONI | SINgle Far Object Near-IR Investigation |
| SM | Service Mode |
| SOFI | SOn oF Isaac |
| SOW | Statement of Work |
| SPC | Scientific Personnel Committee |
| SPE | Specifications |
| SPIFFI | Spectrograph for SINFONI |
| STC | ESO Scientific and Technical Committee |
| ST-ECF | Space Telescope-European Coordinating Facility |
| STScI | Space Telescope Science Institute |
| SUSI | SUperb Seeing Imager |
| SV | Science Verification |
| SW | Software |
| TAROT II | Té lescope à Action Rapide pour les Objets Transitoires - 2 |
| TC | Test Camera |
| TCCD | Technical Coupled Charged Device |
| TCS | Telescope Coordination Software |
| TEC | Technology Division |
| TIM | Time Interface Module |
| TIMMI | Thermal Infrared MultiMode Instrument |
| TOC | Travel Order Claim |
| TSD | Telescope Support Division |
| TWP | Telescope Working Platform |
| UC | ESO Users' Committee |
| UH/MITLL | University of Hawaii and Lincoln Laboratory Consortium |
| UT | Unit Telescope |
| UV | Ultraviolet |
| UVES | UV-Visual Echelle Spectrograph |
| VC | ESO Visiting Committee |
| VCM | Variable Curvature Mirror |
| VIMOS | VIsible MultiObject Spectrometer |
| VINCI | VLTI Instrument |
| VIRMOS | Visible Infra-Red Multi-Object Spectrograph |
| VISIR | VLT Mid-Infrared Imager Spectrometer |
| VISTA | Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy |
| VLC | Very Long Camera |
| VLT | Very Large Telescope |
| VLTI | Very Large Telescope Interferometer |
| VM | Visitor Mode |
| VME | Versa Module Eurocard (Standard LCU bus) |
| VST | VLT Survey Telescope |
| WBS | Work Breakdown Structure |
| WFI | Wide Field Imager |
| WG | Working Group |
| WP | Work Package |
| WWB | Warehouse Workshop Building |