Glossary

Pi Gazing Glossary

Lots of the words we use in code, documentation and general chat about this project can have multiple meanings in regular conversation. This page exists to document exactly what we mean in certain cases.

Observatory

An observatory is a single hardware installation, consisting of the lens, camera, digitiser, Raspberry Pi (or other computer directly attached), and anything else in the observatory housing which get deployed to a site. It has a single ID which does not change over time.

Lens

The lens used by each observatory is identified by a string which denotes the exact model number. This allows the Pi Gazing software to look up properties such as the field of view, and optical distortion of that particular lens.

Camera

The camera refers specifically to the CCD or other technology used to capture light, as distinct from "observatories" which refer more generally to the lens and other associated hardware, as well as the camera sensor itself. Like lens, we identify the camera installed in each observatory by a string which denotes the exact model number. This allows the software to look up properties such as resolution, sensitivity, etc, of each camera model.