An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

Of, relating to, or performed by or with one or more instruments.
See also:
→ instrumental broadening, → instrumental flexure, → instrumental magnitude, → instrumental profile, → instrumental response function, → instrumentalism, → instrumentalist.

Adj. of → instrument.

The broadening of a point source caused by the response functions of the telescope and the instrument used.

→ instrumental; → broadening.

An image defect caused by the mechanical flexure of materials; for example the curved-shape image of a long slit in a spectrograph.

→ instrumental; → flexure.

The magnitude derived directly using → Pogson's relation. The instrumental magnitude depends on → detector→ sensitivity, telescope → aperture, exact filter → bandpass, etc. It must be → calibrated to some standard → photometric system.

→ instrumental; → magnitude.

The shape of instrument's response to the input signal. The Fourier transform of the source function by the instrument function.

→ instrumental; → profile.

The mathematical form of the way an instrument affects the input signal.

→ instrumental; → response; → function.

In the philosophy of science, the pragmatic view that a scientific theory is no more than a useful instrument or tool for getting our experiences in some order.

→ instrumental; → -ism.

An astronomer, engineer, or technician who is concerned with the construction of astronomical instruments.

→ instrumental + → -ist.