Astronomy Terms/Words used in this forum

[Clifford60]

Hi Gurus out there, need all of you to help to bring we newbies to speed. Appreciate if all of you can help to contribute the short form terms and words and its meaning use in this forum. Otherwise, we newbies will see more :?: :?: trying to understand your post. Eg, DSO = Deep Space Object or Distance Space Object or Defence Science Organisation or Don't Shit Okay or .....

And then, the forum may keep it as a sticky post in the Beginners Forum section.

Thanks a millions.

[chrisyeo]

I just wrote these for the SingastroWiki. Not sure what others you have come across that you had some difficulty with..

Cheers,
Chris


http://web.singastro.org/wiki/index.php?Glossary

Glossary of Common Astronomical Terms

Newcomers to the forums might come across these terms and be unfamiliar with them. Here are some brief explanations to get you started.

DSO
DeepSkyObjects, refers to astronomical objects that lie outside our solar system that are faint, small and usually visible only in telescopes. E.g: star clusters, nebulae and galaxies.

ISS
International Space Station, orbiting the Earth currently at about 350km.

STS
Space Transportation System, the official name for the United States' Space Shuttle program.

GOTO
refers to computerised telescopes that allow you to slew to or 'go to' a target with the push of a button.

M objects
M objects refer to the bright DSO's on this list first compiled by Charles Messier in 1774

NGC
New General Catalog, NGC1932 refers the 1932nd entry in this catalog of astronomical objects.

Aperture
refers the size of the 'eye' or light-gathering power of an instrument. E.g: a 150mm or 6" telescope has a lens or mirror of 150mm diameter.

WTS
Want To Sell

WTB
Want To Buy

SCT
Schimdt-Cassegrain Telescope, a type of telescope design usually seen on a fork mounted GOTO systems. See Brief Explanation On Scope Types

MCT
Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope, a type of telescope design. See Brief Explanation On Scope Types

Newtonian
A type of telescope that uses mirrors instead of lenses. Invented by Isaac Newton. See Brief Explanation On Scope Types

Dobsonian
A type of telescope design that places a newtonian telescope on an inexpensive mount popularised by John Dobson

GEM
German-Equatorial Mount, refers to a type of mount that allows polar alignment and tracking of stars.

most other strange names and acronyms are just names of models of equipment

[Clifford60]

Learn 3 words and its meaning. Hopefully as time goes, the forum can add more terms in it. Thanks