951 abbreviations
Abbreviation Meaning
RASC (organization) Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
RASS (observing program/catalog) ROSAT All-Sky Survey, used as both a name for a survey with ROSAT and the catalogs produced from the survey
RC (celestial object) Red Clump, a type of metal-rich red giant star
RC (catalog) Reference Catalogue, a catalog of nearby galaxies
RC (organization/telescope) Ritchey Chretien, a manufacturer of amateur and professional telescope equipment; also the telescopes themselves
RC2 Reference Catalogue, 2nd edition
RC3 Reference Catalogue, 3rd edition
RCB (celestial object) R Coronae Borealis, a class of eruptive variable stars named after R Coronae Borealis, the archetype for the class
RDI (astrophysics terminology) Radiation Driven Implosion
RECONS (organization) Research Consortium on Nearby Stars, a survey of nearby stars
RGB (celestial object) Red-Giant Branch, a star that is evolving from a main-sequence star into a red giant
RGO (organization) Royal Greenwich Observatory
RLOF (astrophysics terminology) Roche Lobe Overflow, the result of when an object in a binary system is larger than its roche lobe (i.e. when an object in a binary system expands to a radius where tidal forces become stronger than gravitational forces)
RLQ (celestial object) Radio Loud Quasar, a quasar that produces strong radio emission
RNGC (catalog) Revised New General Catalog
RORF (astrophysics terminology) Radio/Optical Reference Frame, an inertial reference frame based on extragalactic radio sources
ROSAT (telescope) ROentgen SATellite, an X-ray space telescope
ROTSE (observing program/telescope) Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment, an observing program for detecting the optical counterparts of gamma ray bursts; also the telescopes used in this program
RQQ (celestial object) Radio Quiet Quasar a quasar that produces weak radio emission
RRAT (celestial object) Rotating Radio Transient, a population of rotating neutron stars that produce periodic bursts of emission that are separated by intervals of minutes or hours
RRL (celestial object) RR Lyrae, a class of pulsating variable stars named after RR Lyrae, the archetype of the class
RSA (catalog) Revised Shapley Ames, a catalog of nearby galaxies
RSA (organization) Russian Space Agency
RSAA (organization) Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, part of the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Australian National University
RSG (celestial object) Red Super Giant
RSN (celestial object) Radio SuperNova
RTG (instrumentation) Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, a type of power generator used in spacecraft that travel far from the Sun
RV (astrophysics terminology) Radial Velocity, the velocity along the line of sight
RX (catalog) ROSAT X-ray, a catalog of sources detected by ROSAT
RXTE (telescope) Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer, a space telescope designed to observe variability in X-ray emission
S&T (publication) Sky & Telescope
SAAO (organization) South African Astronomical Observatory
SALT (telescope) Southern African Large Telescope
SAO (organization/catalog) Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the name of astrophysics research organization associated with Harvard University; also a catalog of stars
SARA (organization) Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers
SAS (software) Science Analysis Software, a software package used for processing data from the XMM-Newton Observatory
SAT (telescope) Synthetic Aperture Telescope
SAVAL (organization) Sociedad Astronómica de Valparaíso y Viña del Mar, Chile. Amateur Astronomy. Founded in 1956.
SB (celestial object) Spectroscopic Binary
SB (astrophysics terminology) Surface Brightness
SB1 Spectroscopic Binary, single lined spectra
SB2 Spectroscopic Binary, double lined spectra
SBIG (organization/instrumentation) Santa Barbara Instrument Group, the name of both a company that manufactures telescope equipment and the company's products
SBNC (organization) Small Bodies Names Committee, an older name for the Committee for Small Body Nomenclature
SCP (observing program) Supernova Cosmology Project, a project to measure the expansion of the universe using supernovae at high redshifts
SCR (observing program) SuperCOSMOS-RECONS, a survey that measured the proper motions of stars
SCT (telescope) Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope, a general name for a type of compact telescope that uses both lenses and mirrors
SCUBA (instrumentation) Submillimetre Common User Bolometer Array, a submillimeter imager formerly at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
SCUBA-2 (instrumentation) Submillimetre Common User Bolometer Array 2, a submillimeter imager that will replace SCUBA
sd (celestial object) subdwarf, stars fainter than main-sequence stars with the same colors; often used as a prefix to a star's spectral type