Glossary & abbreviations

This is work in progress

ADU

TODO

AFOV

Apparent field of view - TODO

Airy disk

TODO

Aperture

TODO

arcsec / arcmin

Seconds of arc / minutes of arc - it is a unit of angle equal to:

\[ 1\:arcmin = \frac{1}{60}\:degree \]

\[ 1\:arcsec = \frac{1}{60}\:arcmin = \frac{1}{3600}\:degree \]

Back-focus

TODO

Bias frame

TODO

Bortle Scale

Nine level scale that qualifies night sky's brightness. It is used to measure light pollution. More info is available on Wikipedia

Calibration frames

In astrophotography, frames used to calibrate image in preprocessing. These are: bias, dark and flat frames.

Catadioptric design

A telescope design which used both lens(es) and mirror(s).

CCD sensor

Charge-coupled device - a type of digital imaging sensor. TODO

CMOS sensor

A type of digital imaging sensor. TODO

Dark current

TODO

Dark frame

TODO

EV

TODO

Exit pupil

TODO

Focal length

TODO

Focal ratio / f-number

TODO

Flat frame

TODO

FOV

Field of view - TODO

Light frame

TODO

LP

Light pollution - it is skyglow created mainly by artificial light (in urban areas). LP reduces contrast, making visual observations hard, or even not possible. It is measured in Bortle Scale or mag/arcsec².

Magnification

TODO

MAK

A catadioptric telescope design, usually Maksutov–Cassegrains. TODO

Narrowband

TODO

Newton

Usually used as reference to Newtonian telescope design - reflector.

Power

See magnification.

Rayleigh criterion

See airy disk

Reflector

A telescope design which uses mirror(s) to bend light. It is opposite to refractor.

Refractor

A telescope design which uses lens(es) to bend light. It is opposite to reflector.

RGB

Red-Green-Blue - additive color palette. In astrophotography used to describe photography in visible spectrum.

Scale per pixel

See scale per pixel

SCT

Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope design. TODO

sub

A subframe in astrophotography. One of many frames acquired in a session to produce an image after processing.