ALPACA

So the other day I was working in the Really Big University Astrophysics Laboratory when I came across a poster for this:

the Advanced Liquid-mirror Probe for Astrophysics(Ooo!), Cosmology(Ahhh!) and Asteroids(Whaa?), or ALPACA.

Now the instrument itself is pretty cool, an 8 meter telescope with a primary mirror that is a spinning paraboloid of liquid mercury that will cost a fraction of a glass mirror that size. That's pretty kick ass to us astro-nerds.

But why the silly name? Well it turns out that the KAT (Kick Ass Telescope) is being built in Chile. Can you guess where alpacas are from? I can just imagine how the naming meeting went....

Astronomer 1: "Let's call it the KAT, Kick As Telescope!"

Astronomer2: "No, we'll never get grants. We need a clever name. Let's see....Chile.....whats in Chile?

Astronomer 1: "Alpacas?"

Astronomer 2: "That's perfect! The Advance Liquid-mirror umm, Probe for Astrophysics, Cosmology and, ummm, ummm,..........more Astrophysics?"

Astronomer 1: "Asteroids!"

Both: "Brilliant!"

If that weren't bad enough on the drawing board is LAMA, the Large Aperture Mirror Array, which is actually a sensible acronym so they either got lucky with the cute name, or now are just designing things on purpose to have clever acronyms. (As a side note, LAMA is also a KAT)

I started to wonder if this nearly pathological obsession for witty acronyms was a local phenomenon or if it reflected the general mindset of the astronomy community. So like any good researcher, I hopped the Interwebs looking for more funny astronomy acronyms. I didn't have to search long. Glen Petitpas at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (HSCA? That's not clever.) has complied DOOFAAS the Dumb Or Overly Forced Astronomical Acronyms Site. It's well worth a gander. Some of my favorites include:

11HUGS.................11 Mpc Halpha and Ultraviolet Galaxy Survey

BIGRAT.................BIcentennial Gamma RAy Telescope
PROSAC.................PROtostellar Submillimetre Array Campaign
POLARBEAR.........POLARization of the Background millimEter bAckground Radiation
SHIT.......................Super Huge Interferometric Telescope

Suddenly ALPACA doesn't seem so bad. Who said scientists don't have a sense of humor? Either that, or staying up all night makes astronomers a little daft.