What's going on with this query?

I'm looking at a query and it utilizes some shorthand that I'm not familiar with and I wanted to run it past the ninjas so I could understand it better.

Here's the select statement:

select z.capxid, z.spmodelid
      , z.assettypeid, at.shortname assettypename, at.refname assettyperefname
      , z.description, z.purchasemonth, z.priorityflag
      , z.equipmenttypeid, et.shortname equipmenttypename, et.refname equipmenttyperefname
      , z.financingflag, z.financingcomment
      , z.financingoptionid, fo.shortname financingoptionname, fo.refname financingoptionrefname
      , z.neworreplace, z.revenueornon, z.itemcost, z.shipping, z.installation, z.taxes
      , z.totalcost, z.explanation, z.codesrequirementflag, z.codescomment
      , z.additionalnewcasesflag, z.additionalnewcases, z.additionalnewamount, z.additionalnewcomment
      , z.projectedlosscasesflag, z.projectedlosscases, z.projectedlossamount, z.projectedlosscomment
      , z.budgetnewcasesflag, z.budgetnewcases, z.budgetnewamount, z.budgetnewcomment
      , z.updateuserid, u.displayname updateusername
      , dbo.ptl_formatdate(z.updatedate,'DATETIME') updatedttm
      from strpl_CapX z
            inner join strpl_Model m on m.spmodelid = z.spmodelid
            inner join fin_AssetType at on at.assettypeid = z.assettypeid
            left outer join mat_EquipmentType et on et.equipmenttypeid = z.equipmenttypeid
            left outer join fin_FinancingOption fo on fo.financingoptionid = z.financingoptionid
            left outer join ptl_user u on z.updateuserid = u.userid
      where z.spmodelid = @spmodelid
      order by at.sortorder, at.shortname, z.purchasemonth, z.description

I'm hip to the strpl_CapX table, but I've never used the "z" dynamic that is here and I wanted to make sure that what appears to be the case, is indeed what's happening.

It looks as though that rather than have to write out "strpl_CapX.capxid," I can instead writer "z.capxid" provided I put a "z" after the name of the table like what you see at the beginning of the FROM clause: from strpl_CapX z. Is that right? The above query works so I'm not questioning its utility, I'm just trying to figure out the scripting conventions. The joins are a subject all by themselves, but I wanted to first understand the apparent one letter abbreviations for the tables themselves and ask if that is, in fact, what they are.