ACA Atacama Compact Array (NAOJ/ALMA)
AGB Asymptotic Giant Branch (late stage of red giant stars)
AGN Active Galactic Nucleus
AIB Aromatic Infrared Bands
AKARI (Previously known as ASTRO-F, Institute of Space and Astronautical Science [ISAS], Japan)
ALMA Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array
APEX Atacama Pathfinder Experiment, is a collaboration between Max Planck Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIfR), Onsala Space Observatory (OSO), and ESO
AST/RO Antarctic Submillimeter Telescope and Remote Observatory
ATCA Australia Telescope Compact Array
BIMA Berkeley Illinois Maryland Array
CARMA Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (Caltech, the BIMA partners [Maryland, Illinois, and Berkeley], and the National Science Foundation)
CCAT Cornell Caltech Atacama Telescope (25m-class sub-millimetre radiotelescope project)
CMB Cosmic Microwave Background
CSO Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (operated by Caltech under a contract from the NSF)
DIB Diffuse Interstellar Band
DLA Damped Lyman-
absorption system
ESO European Southern Observatory
FUSE Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (NASA)
EVLA Expanded VLA (NRAO)
FCRAO Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory (University of Massachussets and NSF)
FIR Far InfraRed
GBT Green Bank Telescope (NRAO)
GMC Giant Molecular Cloud
HST Hubble Space Telescope (NASA)
IRAM Institute for RadioAstronomy in the Mm-range (CNRS Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique France; MPG Max Planck Gesellschaft Germany; IGN Instituto Geográfico Nacional, Spain)
IRS InfraRed Spectrograph (Spitzer, NASA)
ISO Infrared Space Observatory (European Space Agency [ESA])
ISOCAM The ISO Camera
ISM InterStellar Medium
JCMT James Clark Maxwell Telescope [PPARC (UK), NRC (Canada) and NWO (Netherlands)]
JWST John Webb Space Telescope (NASA)
LIRG Luminous InfraRed Galaxy
LMC Large Magellanic Cloud
LMT-GTM Large Millimeter Telescope/Gran Telescopio Milimetrico (The Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica, Optica y Electronica in Puebla, Mexico, and University of Massachusetts)
LTE Local Thermodynamical Equilibrium
LVG Large Velocity Gradient
MIR Mid-InfraRed
MW Milky Way
NANTEN Southern 4-meter radiotelescope (Nagoya University, Carnegie Inst. of Washington)
NAOJ National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
NRAO National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF facility operated by Associated Universities, Inc.)
NUGA NUclei of GAlaxies: the IRAM Survey of Low Luminosity AGN
OVRO Owens Valley Radio Observatory (Caltech)
PAH Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon
PDR PhotoDissociation Region
QSO Quasi-Stellar Object (quasar)
SAFIR Single Aperture Far-Infrared observatory (project)
SCUBA (SCUBA2) The Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array at JCMT
SED Spectral Energy Distribution
SEST Swedish-ESO Submillimetre Telescope
SFR Star Formation Rate
SKA Square Kilometer Array
SMA Submillimeter Array (the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory [SAO] and the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics [ASIAA])
SMC Small Magellanic Cloud
SMG SubMillimetre Galaxy
SOFIA Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (NASA and the DLR, German Aerospace Center)
SPICA Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (Inst. of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan)
SWS Short Wavelength Spectrometer (ISO, ESA)
ULIRG Ultra-Luminous InfraRed Galaxy
VLA Very Large Array (NRAO)
VLBI Very Long Baseline Interferometry
VLT Very Large Telescope (ESO)