Dumb Or Overly Forced Astronomical Acronyms Site (or DOOFAAS)

Finally updated after a long backlog! Posting everything I encounter personally is unsustainable, so please help me by mailing me your favourites today!
Acronym Solution
11HUGS 11 Mpc Halpha and Ultraviolet Galaxy Survey (Yowza. We have a winner!)
2D-FRUTTI 2-D Photon Counting System (I swear, I didn't make this up. It was on CTIO as best I can tell. Manual here)
2MASS Two Micron All-Sky Survey
25BEARS ??? It's on ASTE. I need specifics
5MUSES 5 Mjy Unbiased Spitzer Extragalactic Survey (in Acronym mode, their 5 mJy survey seems less impressive in it's senstivity)
ABRACADABRA A Broadband/Resonant Approach to Cosmic Axion Detection with an Amplifying B-field Ring Apparatus (sounds like magic to me)
ACBAR Arcminute Cosmology Bolometer Array Receiver ("It's a photon trap!")
ACE Advanced Composition Explorer
ADIoS Aste Dense gas Imaging Of Spiral galaxies (an AMFA: Acronym Made From Acronyms)
ADONIS Adaptive Optics Near-Infrared System
AESOP An Extensive Symbolic Optics Package
AGAPE Andromeda Galaxy and Amplified Pixel Experiment
AGHAST A Grism H-Alpha SpecTroscopic survey (seems like only yesterday I was agape)
AIM Astrometric Interferometry Mission
AIPS Astronomical Image Processing System
ALEXIS Array of Low Energy X-ray Imaging Sensors
ALFA Adaptive optics with Lasers For Astronomy
ALFA Arecibo L-band Feed Array
ALFAFA Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey (technically you have Arecibo in there twice)
ALHAMBRA Advanced LArge, Homogeneous Area Medium Band Redshift Astronomical survey
ALPO Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers
AMANDA Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array
AMASE Astrophysics Multispectral Archive Search Engine
AMBER Astronomical MultiBEam Recombiner
ANCHORS AN archive of CHandra Observations of Regions of Star formation (Woweee. That's terrible)
ANDICAM A Novel Dual Imaging CAMera
ANDREAS Advanced Name Designer REgarding Astronomical Systems (Bryan Gaensler's astro-acro informant)
ANIS All Neutrino Interaction Simulation (LOL!)
ANTARES Astronomy with a Neutrino Telescope and Abyss environmental RESearch (whatever that means)
APHID Atmospheric PHase Inference Device
APOGEE APO Galaxy Evolution Experiment (AMFA!)
APT Asia Pacific Telescope
ARCADE Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission
ARCSEC Association of Roman Catholics for the promotion of Space Exploration and Colonization
ARIES Arizona Infrared Imager and Echelle Spectrograph
ARISE Advanced Radio Interferometry between Space and Earth
ARISTOTELES Applications and Research Involving Space Technologies Observing the Earth's field from Low Earth orbiting Satellite
ARMPIT ASKAP Rotation Measure and Polarisation InvestigaTion (an AMFA: ASKAP=Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder)
ARTEMIS Advanced Relay TEchnology MISsion
ASTER Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emmision and Reflection
AST/RO Antarctic Submillimeter Telescope and Remote Observatory
ATLAS Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science
ATLASGAL
AURA Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy
AVIRIS Airborne Visible/InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer
AVOCADO A Virtual Observatory Census to Address Dwarfs Origins (from a short podium I imagine)
AzTEC The AZtronomical Thermal Emission Camera (that's cheating)
BACODINE BATSE COordinate DIstribution NEtwork (BATSE=Burst And Transient Source Experiment)
BAD Balmer-Absorption-Dominated (Nuclei)
BAM Balloon-bourne Anisotropy Measurement
BaR-SPOrt BAlloon-bourne Radiometers for Sky Polarisation ObseRvaTions (honestly)
BATMAN Bad-Ass Transit Model cAlculatioN (someone knows the game)
BEER BEaming, Ellipsoidal & Reflection effects (mmmm, BERE)
BICEP Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (feel the burn)
BIGASS Bright Infrared Galaxy All Sky Survey (J. Howell is still a winner in my book!)
BIGRAT BIcentennial Gamma RAy Telescope
BiSON Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network
BLAST Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Sub-millimeter Telescope
BLISS Background-Limited Infrared-Submillimeter Spectrograph
BLOSM Broad band and Large area x-ray Omni Sky Monitor
BOOJUMS Blue Objects Observed Just Undergoing Moderate Starbursts (`Boojums' is from Lewis Carrolls poem ``The Hunting of the Snark'')
BOOMERanG Balloon Observations Of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation and Geophysics
BRITE BRIght Target Explorer (creating an acronym just to mis-spell the word bright?)
CAFE CAssegrain Fiber Environment
CANDELS Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey
CANGAROO Collaboration between Australian and Nippon for a Gamma Ray Observatory in the Outback (krazy!)
CARA Centre for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica
CARMA Combined Array for Research in Millimetre-wave Astronomy
CASA-BLANCA Chicago Air Shower Array - Broad LAteral Non-imaging Cerenkov Array
CASIMIR CAltech Submillimeter Interstellar Medium Investigations Receiver
CASPIR Cryogenic Array SPectrometer ImageR
CASTLES Cfa/Arizona Space Telescope LEns Survey
CAT Cosmic Anisotropy Telescope
ChAOS Chicago Adaptive Optics System
CHARA Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy
CHASE Coronal Helium Abundance Spacelab Experiment
CHIPS Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer
CIAO Chandra Interactive Analysis of Observations
CIRPASS Cambridge InfraRed PAnoramic Survey Spectrograph
CIRRIS Cryogenic InfraRed Radiance Instrument for Shuttle
CIRSI Cambridge InfraRed Survey Instrument (as in Cerse, the daughter of sun god Helius)
CISCO Cooled Infrared Spectrograph and Camera for OHS
COAST Cambridge Optical Aperature Synthesis Telescope
COAST Cambridge Optical Aperature Synthesis Telescope
CLOUD Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets (huh?)
COBRA Cadmium-zinc-telluride O-neutrino double-Beta Research Apparatus (The "O" is for "Zero" 0f c0urse)
COBRAS/SAMBA COsmic Background Radiation Anisotropy Satellite/SAtellite to Measure Background Anisotropies
COCOA-PUFS COordinated Campaign of Observations and Analysis, Photosphere to Upper atmosphere, of a Fast-rotating Star (I'm coo coo for a ridiculous acronym!)
COHSI Cambridge OH Suppresion Instrument
COINS CSOs Observed In Northern Sky
COMPLETE COodinated Molecular Probe Line Extinction Thermal Emissio (survey)
COMPLEX COMmittee on Planetary and Lunar spave EXploration
CORNEA Corrective Optics R? N? Emmending Atmosphere (would you believe on IRIS ?)
COSMOS CoOrdinates, Sizes, Magnitudes, Orientations, and Shapes
COSTAR Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement
COLA Compact Objects in Low power Agns
COME ON+ ? (Adaptive Optics on ESO 3.6 m Telescope)
COMPASS COsmic Microwave Polarization At Small Scales
CONICA COude Near Infrared CamerA
COW Committee Of the Wise (scheduling committee for WET)
COYOTES Coordinated Observations of Young ObjecTs from Earthbound Sites
CREAM Cosmic Radiation Effects and Activatiom Monitor
CUBIC Cosmic Unresolved Background Instrument using CCD's
DAISY Data Acquisition and Interpretation System
DASI Degree Angular Scale Interferometer/td>
DAZLE Dark Ages Z (redshift) Lyman-alpha Explorer
DEBRA Diffuse Extragalactic Background RAdiation
DEBRIS Disc Emission via a Bias-free Reconnaissance in the Infrared/Sub-millimetre (not bad...)
DEEP Deep Extragalactic Evolutionary Probe
DEERS Deeply Embedded Energetic Radio Sources
DEIMOS Deep Extragalactic Imaging Multi Object Spectrograph
DENIS DEep Near Infrared Survey of the Southern Sky
DIGIT Dust, Ice, and Gas In Time (everything in time...)
DIMES DIffuse Microwave Emission Survey
DIRT Dust InfraRed Toolbox
DIVA Deutsches Interferometer fuer Vielkanalphotometry und Astrometrie
DIXI Deep Impact eXtended Investigation
DONUT Direct Observation of NU Tau
DRAGN Double Radio sources Associated with Galactic Nuclei
DUO Disk Unseen Objects
DUNES DUst disks around NEarby Stars
DUPLEX DUst-Prominent Longitudinally-EXtended
EGG Evaporating Gaseous Globule
EGRET Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope
EIDERS Externally Ionized Disks in the Environs of Radiation Sources
ELFS Extremely Luminous Far-infrared Sources
EPOCh Extrasolar Planet Observations and Characterization (see below for evolution)
EPOXI The result of merging the EPOCh and DIXI missions (an AMFAMFA, Acronym Made From AMFAs)
EROS Expérience de Recherche d'Objects Sombres
ESP ESO Slice Project (an AMFA)
ETC Explosive Transient Camera
EURECA EUropean REtrievable CArrier
FAME Fizeau Astrometric Mapping Explorer
FaNTOmM Fabry-perot of New Technology for the Observatoire du mont Megantic (wow... just wow)
FAST Fast Auroral SnapshoT explorer
FASTSOUND Fmos Ankoku Shindou Tansa Subaru Observation Understanding Nature of Dark energy (A multilanguage AMFA. FMOS is 'Fiber Multi-Object Spectrograph' and Ankoku Shindou Tansa is Japanese for 'Dark Oscillation Survey'
FATBOY The Florida Analysis Tool Born of Yearning for high-quality scientific data (this may be the worse... or best yet)
FAUST FAr-Ultraviolet Space Telescope
FIBRE Fabry-perot Interferometer Bolometer Research Experiment
FIDEL Far Infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy
FIFI Far Infrared Fabry-perot Interferometer
FIGARO French Italian GAmma Ray Observatory
FILM Far Infrared Line Mapper
FIREFLY Fitting IteRativEly For Likelihood analYsis (I admire the commitment to the cause!)
FIRST Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-centimeters
FITS Flexible Image Transport System
FLAIR Fibre Linked Array Image Reformatter
FLAMINGOS FLoridA Multi-object Imaging Near-infrared Grism Observational Spectrometer (eek)
FLIERS Fast, Low-Ionization Emission RegionS
FLITECAM First Light Infrared Test Experiment CAMera (it's on SOFIA, so it really is a flying camera. Good work!)
FORCAST Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope (Also an AMFA; Thanks to Luke Keller)
FORT Foyer Optimise pour le RadioTelescope (FORT="strong" in French)
FOXES Fluctuating Optical and X-ray Emitting Sources
FRED Fast RisE, rapid Decay (pulse structure in pulsars)
FROG Faint Red Outlier Galaxy
FUC Far Ultraviolet Camera
FUCR Far Ultra-Chromatic Rocket (thanks to Will Marchant)
FUSE Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer
GAIA Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics
GADZOOKS! Gadolinium Antineutrino Detector Zealously Outperforming Old Kamiokande, Super! (PI insists on the exclaimation point! Awesome!)
GALAPAGOS Galaxy Analysis over Large Areas: Parameter Assessment by Galfitting Objects from Sextractor (took some work!)
GANDALF Gas AND Absorption Line Fitting algorithm (pushed all the right nerd buttons)
GASP Gamma-rays At the South Pole
GASP Guide star selection system Astrometric Support Package
GASPS GAS in Protoplanetary Systems
GEMS Glasses Embedded Metals and Sulfides
GIMP Geo-magnetically induced Image Motion Problem (on HST)
GISMO Goddard-Iram Superconducting 2-Millimeter Observer (the '2' is silent. I guess GITMO was inappropriate))
GENIUS GErmanium liquid NItrogen Underground Setup
GIPSY Groningen Image Processing SYstem
GLIMPSE GLobal IMPlicit SEarch
GLIMPSE Galactic Legacy Infrared MidPlane Survey Extraordinaire
GOALS Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey (another AMFA!)
GOBELINS GOuld's BELt dIstaNces Survey (work it!)
GOES Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites
GOD Gravity One Dimension (The paper was entitled `The likelihood of GODs' existence'...)
GONG Global Oscillations Network Group
GOODS Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey
GNAT Global Network of Astronomical Telescopes
GRAPE GRAvity PipE
GRAPES GRism Acs Program for Extragalactic Science
GRASP Gamma-Ray Astronomy with Spectroscopy and Positioning
GREAT German REceiver for Astronomy at Terahetz frequencies (it'd better be good!)
GUPPI Green bank Ultimate Pulsar Processing Instrument (like PUPPI)
HARP Hermite AcceleratoR Pipe
HAWAII HgCdTe Astronomical Wide Area Infrared Imager
HEAD High Energy Astrophysics Division
HEAT High-Energy Antimatter Telescope
HELLAS High-Energy Large Area Survey (I don't know where the extra L came from, but I think Hellas is the ancient name for Greece.)
HERB High Energy Resolution Burst
HERITAGE HERschel Inventory of The Agents of Galaxy Evolution (agents?)
HERMES HERschel M33 Extended Survey
HEROES HERschel Observations Edge-on Spirals
HIFI Hawaii Imaging Fabry-perot Interferometer
HIPPARCOS HIgh Precision PARallax COllecting Satellite (I genuinely did not know this was an acronym until readers pointed out I missed it :P)
HIPPIES Hubble Infrared Pure Parallel Imaging Extragalactic Survey
HIS/HERS High Intensity Spectrograph / High Energy Range Spectrometer
HO-BAGS Hubble Observatory BAckground Galaxy Survey
HOEs Holographic Optical Elements
H0LiCOW H0 Lenses in COSMOGRAIL’s Wellspring (A subscript as an acronyn, AND an AMFA! Great on so many levels)
HOPS Herschel Orion Protostar Survey
Hot DOGs Hot Dust-Obscured Galaxies
IDEA Initiative to Develop Education through Astronomy
INTEGRAL INTErnational Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory
IOTA Infrared and Optical Telescope Array
IRAC InfraRed Array Camera
IRIS Infra Red Imager Spectrograph
JACARA Joint Australian Centre for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica
JADES JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (an AMFA!)
JAGUAR JAdes extraGalactic Ultradeep Artificial Realizations (an AMFAMFA!)
JAVELIN Just Another Vehicle for Estimating Lags In Nuclei (formerly known as SPEAR, see below)
JIVE Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe
KARMEN Karlsruhe Appleton Rutherford Medium Neutrino Experiment
KASCADE KArlsruhe Shower Core and Array DEtector
KINGFISH Key Insights on Nearby Galaxies: a Far-Infrared Survey with Herschel
KISS KPNO International Spectroscopic Survey
KNAC Keck Northeast Astronomy Consortium
KOSMA Kölner Observatorium für Submillimeter Astronomie
LACE Low power Atmospheric Compensation Experiment
LALA Large Area Lyman Alpha survey
LAMOST Large sky Area Mulit Object fiber Spectrscopic Telescope
LAMP Lick AGN Monitoring Project (AMFA)
LEST Large Earth-based Solar Telescope
LIGHT Light Interferometer satellite for the studies of Galactic Halo Tracers
LINERS Low Ionization Nuclear Emission-line Regions
LIRIS Long slit Intermediate Resolution Intrared Spectrograph
LISA Laser Interfeter Space Antenna
LUCIFER LBT near infrared spectroscopic Utility with Camera and Integral Field Unit for Extragalactic Research (apparently most of that is silent, and and AMFA)
MACAO Multi-Application Curvature Adaptive Optics
MACHO MAssive Compact Halo Objects
MACRO Monopoles, Astrophysics, and Cosmic Ray Observatory
MAGES MIPS AGN and Galaxy Evolution Survey (a double AMFA!)
MAGNUM Multicolor Active Galactic Nuclei Monitoring project
MAMA Multi-Anode Microchannel Array
MAMBO MAx-planck-Millimeter-BOlometer
MANGA MApping Nearby Galaxies at Apache point observatory
MAP Microwave Anisotropy Probe
MAPS Minnesota Automated Plate Scanner
MARTINI Multi-Aperture Real Time Image NormalIzation system
MASCARA Multi-site All-Sky CAmeRA
MASSIF Masses and Stellar Systems with InterFerometry
MAX Millimeter wave Anisotropy eXperiment
MAXIMA Millimeter wave Anisotropy eXperiment IMaging Array
MBONE Multicast BackbONE
MERLIN Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network
MESSENGER MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging (I geniunely didn't realize this was an acronym!)
MIAOW Minimum Inertia Adaptive Optics Widget
MICE Muons in ICE
MICHELLE Mid-Infrared eCHELLE spectrograph
MIDAS Munich Image Data Analysis System
MIDGet Millimeter Interferometry of Dwarf Galaxies (adding letters to be offensive?, especially when they prefer to be called "little galaxies")
MIME Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
MIRA Mitaka optical and Infra-Red interferometer Array
MIRAC Mid InfraRed Array Camera
MIRACLE Mid-InfraRed Array Camera of Least Effort
MIRIAD Multichannel Image Reconstruction, Image Analysis and Display
MIRLIN Mid-InfraRed Large Imager (the 'N' doesn't stand for anything!)
MOMI Manchester Occulting Mask Imager
MONICA MONtreal Infrared CAmera
MOSAIC MDM/Ohio State/ALADDIN Infrared Camera (really!)
MOST Microvariability and Oscillations of STars
MOST Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope
MUNICS MUnich Near-Infrared Cluster Survey (awesome)
MUSE Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer
MUSICOS MUlit-SIte COordinated Spectroscopy
NANOGRAV North American Nanohertz Observatory for GRAVitational waves
NEAT Near Earth Asteriod Tracking (telescope)
NHEMESES New HErshel Multi-wavelength Extragalactic Survey of Edge-on Spirals
NIRI Near InfraRed Imager
NITE Near-Infrared Telescope Experiment
NOT Nordic Optical Telescope
OASIS Optically Adaptive System for Imaging Spectroscopy
OGLE Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment
OHANA Optical Hawaiian Array for Nanoradian Astronomy (A plan to join Mauna Kea optical observatories into one interferometer. Ohana is Hawaiian for 'family'. OK, this one is good.)
OPAL Orbiting Picosat Automatic Launcher
OPUS Observations support/post-observation data Processing Unified System (good god!)
ORFEUS Orbiting and Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer
OSCAR Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio
OSCIR Observatory Spectrometer Camera for the InfraRed
OSIRIS Optical Space Interferometer: Russian Instrument for Stellar astronomy
OSIRIS-REx Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (I would have worked harder to make TYRANNOSIRIS-REx)
OWL Overwhelmingly Large Telescope (so big, it's ridiculous)
PAPER Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization
PEARS Probing Evolution And Reionization Spectroscopically
PEPSI Potsdam Echelle Polarimetric and Spectroscopic Instrument (their logo is gloriously close to copyright infringement; pepsi.aip.de
PHaEDRA Preserving Harvard's Early Data and Research in Astronomy
PHEBUS Payload for High Energy BUrst Spectroscopy
PIG Partially Ionized Globule
PINOCCHIO PINpointing Orbit-Crossing Collapsed HIerarchial Objects (Egad!)
PINTofALE Package for the INTeractive Analysis of Line Emission (E for Effort, but this is PINTAofLE)
PIQUE Princeton IQU Experiment
PIT Phase 1 Tool (for Gemini, replacing POOPSY)
PLANET Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork
POEM Polar Orbiting Earth Mission
POINTS Precision Optical INTerferometer in Space
POLAR Polarization Observations of Large Angular Regions (what's an angular region?)
POLARBEAR POLARization of the Background millimEter bAckground Radiation (very weak)
POOPSY Phase One Observing Proposal SYstem
POST POlar Stratosperic Telescope
PRESTO Project to Re-Engineer Space Telescope Observing
PROSAC PROtostellar Submillimetre Array Campaign (a pretty hard campaign)
PUPPI Puerto rican Ultimate Pulsar Processing Instrument (like GUPPI)
QUEST Q and U Extra-galactic Sub-mm Telescope
QUIJOTE Q-U-I JOint TEnerife (30 GHz Polarimeter)
QUIRC QUick InfRared Camera
RASSCALS ROSAT All-Sky Survey-Center for Astrophysics Loose Systems (yet another AMFA)
RATTS Run Away T-Tauri Stars
RAVE the RAdial Velocity Experiment
RESCEU RESearch Center for the Early Universe
RICE Radio Ice Cerenkov Experiment
SAFARI SpicA FAR-infrared Instrument (an AMFA!)
SAGA Solar Array Gain Augmentation
SAGE Surveying the Agents of a Galaxy's Evolution (overly forced!)
SAGES Study of the Astrophysics of Globular clusters in Extragalactic Systems
SARA Satellite pour Astronomie Radio Amateur
SASS Standard Analysis Software System
SASS Spitzer Atlas of Stellar Spectra
SAX Satellite per Astronomia X (its Italian)
SAURON Spectroscopic Areal Unit for Research on Optical Nebulae (mmmm, nerdy)
SCAR Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research
SCORE SIRTF-CORnell Echelle
SCUBA Submillimeter Common-User Bolometer Array
SEQUOIA SEcond QUabbin Optical Imaging Array
SERENDIP Search for Extraterrestrial Radio Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations
SERTS Solar EUV Rocket Telescope Spectrograph
SERVS Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey
SGARFACE Short GAmma Ray Front AirCerenkov Experiment (Sweet misspelled goodness)
SHARC Submillimeter High Angular Resolution Camera (eats SCUBA alive they claim)
SHARE Space station Heat pipe Advanved Radiator Element
SHARP System for High-Angular-Resolution Pictures
SHEEP Search for the High Energy Extragalactic Population
SHIT Super Huge Interferometric Telescope (look for yourself)
SiEGMuND Simulation of Events with Geant for Muon and Neutrino Detectors
SIGMA Systeme d'Imagerie Gamma a Masque Aleatoire
SIMBAD Set of Identifications, Measurements and Bibliography for Astronomical Data
SIMPLE Spitzer IRAC/MUSYC Public Legacy survey in the Extended chandra deep field south (Wow, SIMPLSECDFS?)
SINFONI the SINgle Faint Object Near-infrared Investigation
SINGS SIRTF Infrared Nearby Galaxy Survey (an AMFA)
SIMPLE Superheated Instrument for Massive ParticLe Experiments
SLAP Space Link Access Protocol
SMAC Streaming Motions of Abel Clusters
SMIRFS Sub Millimeter InfraRed Fiber-feed System (or something)
SMOG Spitzer Mapping of the Outer Galaxy
SMUDGES Systematic Multiwavelength Unbiased catalog of Dwarf Galaxies and Evolution of Structure (clever and appropriate)
SNAP SuperNova Acceleration Probe
SOAR Southern Observatory for Astrophysical Research
SOFIA Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy
SODA Small Objects DAtabase
SOHO SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory
SOLE Star-Obvious Low-level-Elongated
SOLSTICE SOLar STellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment
SONG Stellar Oscillations Network Group
SONG Survey Of Nearby Galaxies
SOONSPOT Solar Observing Optical Network / Solar Patrol On Tape
SOUP Solar Optical Universal Polarimeter
SPAN Space Physics and Analysis Network
SPARTAN Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for AstroNomy
SPASE South Pole Air ShowEr array
SPAS SPace VLBI Assistance Software
SPEAR Stochastic Process Estimation for Agn Reverberations (now upgraded to JAVELIN, see above)
SPECULOOS Search for habitable Planets Eclipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars (after the cookies from Belgium)
SPHERE Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch instrument
SPICA SPace Infra-red telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics
SPICE Spectro-Photometric Infrared Celestrial Explorer
SPIDERS SPectroscopic IDentification of ERosita Sources
SPIFFI SPectrometer for Infrared Faint Field Imaging
SPIFI South Pole Imaging Fabry-perot Interferometer
SPIRAL Surface Photometry Interactive Reduction and Analysis Library
SPIRAL Segmented Pupil/ Imaging Array Lenses
SPIRE Spectral and Photometric Imaging REceiver for herschel
SPLOT Snapshot survey for Polarised Light in Optical Transients
SPOrt Sky Polarization Observatory (why not ObseRvaTory?)
SPOT Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre
SPUDS Spitzer Public legacy survey of the UKIDSS ultra Deep Survey (weak)
SPYBAL SPectrum Y-BALance
SQIID Simultaneous Quad-color Infrared Imaging Device
SQUID Superconducting QUantum Interference Device
SQUIRT Satellite QUIck Research Testbed
STACEE Solar Tower Atmospheric Cherenkov Effect Experiment
STEP Solar Terrestrial Energy Program
SUGAR-RUSH Studying the Universe with GAlaxy suRveys Revealing the Unlimited in ShangHai (was the meeting in Shanghai just to make the acronym work?)
SUMER Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation
SURF SCUBA User Reduction Facility
SUSI Sydney University Stellar Interferometer
SUSPECT Sydney University SPECTrograph
SuZIE Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Infrared Experiment
STEFFI Spectrograph-TElescope Fibre-Feed Interface
SWAN Solar Wind Anisotropy Experiment
TADPOL Telescope Array Doing POLarization
TANGOinPARIS Testing Astroparticle with the New Gev/tev Observations Positrons And electRons : Identifying the Sources (THE WINNER!)
TAROT Telescope a Action Rapide pour les Objets Transitoires
TATOOINE The Attempt To Observe Outer-planets In Non-single-stellar Environments (Genius! Star Wars nerds are the best nerds)
TAU Thousand Astronomical Unit
THINGS The HI Nearby Galaxy Survey (roman numerals as "I"; a first here!)
THOR The Hi/Oh Recombination line survey of the milky way
THUMPER Two HUndred Micron PhotometER
TIM Telescope Image Modelling
TIM (translates to) Mexican Infrared-optical Telescope
TNTCAM Ten aNd Twenty Micron CAMera
TOMBO Transient Observatory for Microlensing and Bursting Objects (Japanese project; telescopes resemble compound insect eyes; Tombo is Japanese for dragonfly)
TOMS Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer
TOOT TexOx-1000 (Oh, I get it, Texas-Oxford One Thousand; weak)
T-RECS Thermal REgion Camera System
TRAPPIST TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope (named after the beer making monks!)
TRIFFID TRansputer Instrument For Fast Image Deconvolution (actually, it had no Transputer chips, and didn't even do deconvolution)
UNSWIRF University of New South Wales Infrared Fabry-Perot (after an unpopular premier of NSW named Barry Unsworth)
VERITAS Very large Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System
VESTALE unVEil the darknesS of The gAlactic buLgE (you are not even trying anymore. UNDARGARB was within reach)
VIPER VIMos Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey
VIRGO Variability in Irradiance and Gravity Oscillations
VIRIS Visual-InfraRed Imaging System
VOIR Venus Orbiting Imaging Radar (voir is french for "to see")
WARPS Wide Angle ROSAT Pointed Survey
WASP Wideband Analog SPectrometer
WATCH Wide Angle Telescope for Cosmic Hard x-rays
WET Whole Earth Telescope
WHAM Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper
WIMP Weakly Interacting Massive Particles
WIRE Wide-field InfraRed Explorer
WISARD Web Interface for Searching Archival Research Data
WISEASS Weizmann Institute of Science Experimental Astrophysics Spectroscopy System
WISP Wide field Imaging Symbiotic Program
WITS Web Infrared ToolShed (has DIRT on it)
WOMBAT Wavelength-Oriented Microwave Background Analysis Team (Go Team! They're playing the Molecular Astrophysics Team for the championship later this week.)
WUPPE Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment
YORIC Yet another Optimal Resolution Image Constructor (Alas...)
ZEBRA Zurich Extragalactic Bayesian Redshift Analyzer
(last updated Jan 3 2019)