Trivia

Etymology of OpihiExarata

The IRTF Opihi telescope is named after the opihi, a limpet which lives on rocky shores by sticking to the rocks. In a similar vein, the Opihi telescope sticks hard onto the side of the main IRTF telescope. One of the three opihi species endemic to the Hawaii islands is the Hawaiian blackfoot opihi. The Opihi telescope is similar to this species and for this reason, this software is named after it. (The similarities: the opihi species and the telescope are both black; the Opihi telescope is rather small compared to the IRTF, the blackfoot is a small opihi; and the blackfoot opihi is a high delicacy, similar to this software, it has a rather small audience.)

The binomial taxonomical name of the Hawaiian blackfoot opihi is Cellana exarata. The genus Cellana describes the group of limpets including the opihi, but exarata is the identifying part for the Hawaiian blackfoot, thus the name of this software, we decided, is the hybrid: OpihiExarata. A backronym for it, descriptive of its function: OPIHI Ephemeris with eXtra Atmospheric Response and Asteroid Trajectory Analysis.