AAO Anglo-Australian Observatory
AAS American Astronomical Society
ADC Astronomical Data Center (of NASA's NSSDC)
ADS Astrophysics Data System
AEC Archive Exposure Catalog (of the Hubble Space Telescope)
AIPS Astronomical Image Processing System
APM Automated Plate Measuring Machine (Cambridge, UK)
APS Automated Plate Scanner (Univ. Minnesota, USA)
ARMS Automated Retrieval Mail System (of NASA-ADC)
ASCA Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (formerly Astro-D)
ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ASP Astronomical Society of the Pacific
ATNF Australian Telescope National Facility
BATSE Burst and Transient Source Experiment (on board CGRO)
BBXRT Broad Band X-Ray Telescope
BICDS Bulletin d'Information du Centre de Donn'ees Astronomiques de Strasbourg
Bitnet Because It's Time network
CADC Canadian Astronomical Data Center (Victoria, BC)
CD-ROM Compact Disk - Read-Only Memory
CDS Centre de Données Astronomiques Strasbourg (Strasbourg Data Center)
CERN European Center for Nuclear Research
CfA Center for Astrophysics
CFHT Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
CGRO Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
COBE Cosmic Background Explorer
COSMOS Coordinates, Sizes, Magnitudes, Orientations and Shapes (ROE, UK)
DEC Digital Equipment Corporation
DIRA2 Distributed Information Retrieval from Astronomical files
DIRBE Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (on COBE satellite)
DMR Differential Microwave Radiometer (on COBE satellite)
EAS European Astronomical Society
EINLINEEinstein On-Line Service
EMMI ESO Multimode Instrument
EOLS Einstein On-Line Service
ESA European Space Agency
ESIS European Space Information System
ESO European Southern Observatory
ESRIN European Space Research Institute (ESA)
ESTEC European Space Technolgy and Research Center (ESA)
EUVE Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer
EXOSAT European X-ray Observatory Satellite
FAQ Frequently asked questions
FIRAS Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer (on COBE satellite)
FIRST Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-cm (Survey with NRAO's VLA)
FITS Flexible Image Transport System
FTP File Transfer Protocol
GASP Guide-Star Astrometric Support Package (STScI)
GEISHA Groningen Exportable Infrared System for High-Resolution Analysis
GIPSY Groningen Image Processing System
GRO Gamma-Ray Observatory (Compton Observatory)
GSFC Goddard Space Flight Center
GUI Graphical User Interface
HEADS High Energy Astrophysics Database Service
HEAO High Energy Astrophysics Observatory
HEASARC High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center
Hipparcos High-Precision Parallax Collecting Satellite
HST Hubble Space Telescope
HTML Hypertext Markup Language
IAU International Astronomical Union
ING Isaac Newton Group (of telescopes on La Palma, see JKT, INT and WHT)
INSPEC INformation Services in Physics, Electrotechnology, Computers and Control
INT Isaac Newton Telescope (2.5-m mirror on La Palma)
IP Internet protocol
IPAC Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
IRAF Image Reduction and Analysis Facility
IRAS Infrared Astronomical Satellite
IRAM Institut de Radioastronomie Millim'etrique
ISO Infrared Space Observatory
ISSA Infrared Sky Survey Atlas (IRAS maps)
IUE International Ultraviolet Explorer
JCMT James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (Hawaii)
JKT Jakobus Kapteyn Telescope (1-m mirror on La Palma)
LANL Los Alamos National Laboratory
LDS Leicester Database System
LEDA Lyon-Meudon Extragalactic Database
LHEA Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics
LPI Lunar and Planetary Institute [1ex]
MIDAS Munich Image Data Analysis System
MPE Max-Planck Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik (Garching)
MQQ multiple quick query
NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NCSA National Center for Supercomputing Applications
NED NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
NFRA Netherlands Foundations for Research in Astronomy
NGDC National Geophysical Data Center
NMC NASA's Master Catalog
NODIS NSSDC Online Data and Information Service
NONA NSI On-Line Network Aid
NSI NASA Science Internet
NSSDC National Space Science Data Center
NOAO National Optical Astronomy Observatory
NRAO National Radio Astronomy Observatory
NTT New Technology Telescope (ESO, La Silla)
NVSS NRAO VLA Sky Survey
OP Opacity Project
PGC Principal Galaxy Catalogue (see A&AS80, 299)
POSS Palomar Observatory Sky Survey
PPARC Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (UK), previously SERC
PPM Positions and Proper Motions (Star Catalog)
RA Right ascension
RAL Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
RAP Radio Astronomy Preprints (NRAO service)
RECON REmote CONsole (program by NASA STI to access their data)
RGO Royal Greenwich Observatory (Cambridge, UK)
ROE Royal Observatory Edinburgh (Edinburgh, UK)
ROSAT Röntgensatellit
SAO Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
SCAR Starlink Catalog Access and Reporting System
SCCA Statistical Consulting Center for Astronomy
SDC Space Data Center
SEL Space Environment Laboratory
SERC Science and Engineering Research Council (UK), now PPARC
SGML Standard Generalized Markup Language
SHS Solar and Heliospheric Division
SIMBAD Set of Identifications, Measurements, and Bibliography for Astronomical Data SISSA International School for Advanced Studies, Trieste, Italy
SMM Solar Maximum Mission
SPAN Space Physics Analysis Network
SPIN Searchable Physics Information Notices
STARCAT Space Telescope Archive and Catalog
STD Solar Terrestrial Dispatch
ST-ECFSpace Telescope - European Coordinating Facility
STELAB Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory
STELAR STudy of Electronic Literature for Astronomical Research
STEP Space Telescope Exhibited Preprints
STEP Solar-Terrestrial Energy Program
STI NASA's Scientific and Technical Information Program
STN Scientific and Technical information Network
STScI Space Telescope Science Institute (Baltimore, USA)
SUSI Superb Seeing Imager (ESO)
TCP Transport Connection Protocol
UKIRT United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (on Hawaii)
UKST United Kingdom Schmidt Telescope (Siding Spring, New South Wales)
ULDA IUE Uniform Low Dispersion Archive
URL Uniform Resource Locator
VLA Very Large Array (Socorro, New Mexico)
VLAIS Very Large Array Information System
XTE X-ray Timing Explorer
WAIS Wide-Area Information Servers
WHT William Herschel Telescope (4.2-m mirror on La Palma)
WSRT Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope
WWW World-Wide Web