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Omar, Amitesh
- Scientific Capabilities and Advantages of the 3.6 Meter Optical Telescope at Devasthal, Uttarakhand
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Authors
Affiliations
1 Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Manora Peak, Nainital 263 002, IN
1 Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Manora Peak, Nainital 263 002, IN
Source
Current Science, Vol 113, No 04 (2017), Pagination: 682-685Abstract
India's largest 3.6 m aperture optical telescope has been successfully installed in the central Himalayan region at Devasthal, Nainital district, Uttarakhand. The primary mirror of the telescope uses the active optics technology. The back-end instruments, enabling spectroscopic and photometric imaging of the celestial sky are designed and developed by ARIES along with other Indian institutes. The Devasthal optical telescope in synergy with two other highly sensitive telescopes in the country, namely GMRT operating in the radio wavebands and AstroSat operating in the high-energy X-ray, ultraviolet and visual wavebands, will enable Indian astronomers to carry out scientific studies in several challenging areas of astronomy and astrophysics.Keywords
Active Optics Technology, Celestial Sky, Instrumentation, Optical Astronomy.Full Text
References
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- The 3.6 Metre Devasthal Optical Telescope:From Inception to Realization
Abstract Views :230 |
PDF Views:80
Authors
Affiliations
1 Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Sarajapur Road, Koramangala, Bengaluru 560 034, IN
2 Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Manora Peak, Nainital 263 001, IN
1 Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Sarajapur Road, Koramangala, Bengaluru 560 034, IN
2 Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Manora Peak, Nainital 263 001, IN
Source
Current Science, Vol 117, No 3 (2019), Pagination: 365-381Abstract
India’s largest 3.6 metre Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) was commissioned in 2016, though the idea of building it germinated way back in 1976. This article provides research accounts as well as glimpses of its nearly four decades of journey. After a decade of site surveys, Devasthal in the central Himalayan region of Kumaon, Uttarkhand was identified. Thereafter, a detailed site characterization was conducted and project approvals were obtained. The telescope is designed to be a technologically advanced optical astronomy instrument. It has been demonstrated to resolve a binary star having angular separation of 0.4 arc-sec. After technical activation of the telescope on 30 March 2016, it has been in regular use for testing various back-end instruments as well as for optical and near-infrared observations of celestial objects. Back-end instruments used for these observations are 4K × 4K CCD IMAGER, faint object imager-cum-spectrograph and TIFR nearinfrared camera-II. A few published science results based on the observations made with the telescope are also presented. Furthermore, routine observations show that for a good fraction of observing time the telescope provides sky images of sub-arc second resolution at optical and nearinfrared wavelengths. This indicates that the extreme care taken in the design and construction of the telescope dome building has been rewarding, since the as-built thermal mass contributes minimally so as not to degrade the natural atmospheric seeing measured at Devasthal about two decades ago during 1997–99 using differential image motion monitor. The overall on-site performance of the telescope is found to be excellent and at par with the performance of other similar telescopes located over the globe.Keywords
History, Optical Telescope, Optical Observatory, Site Characterization, Sky Performance.Full Text
References
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- Omar, A., Kumar, B., Gopinathan, M. and Sagar, R., Scientific capabilities and advantages of the 3.6 m optical telescope at Devasthal, Uttarakhand. Curr. Sci., 2017, 113, 682–685; doi: 10.18520/cs/v113/i04/682-685.
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- First-Light Images from Low-Dispersion Spectrograph-Cum-Imager on 3.6m Devasthal Optical Telescope
Abstract Views :223 |
PDF Views:80
Authors
Affiliations
1 Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Manora Peak, Nainital 263 001, IN
1 Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Manora Peak, Nainital 263 001, IN
Source
Current Science, Vol 116, No 9 (2019), Pagination: 1472-1478Abstract
A low-dispersion spectrograph-cum-imager has been developed and assembled in ARIES, Nainital. The optical design of the spectrograph consists of a collimator and a focal reducer converting the f/9 beam from the 3.6 m Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) to a nearly f/4.3 beam. The instrument is capable of carrying out broad-band imaging, narrow-band imaging and low-resolution (λ /Δλ < 2000) slit spectroscopy in the wavelength range 350–1050 nm. A closed-cycle cryogenically cooled charge-coupled device camera, also assembled in ARIES, is used as the main imaging device for the spectrograph. The first images from the spectrograph on the telescope assert seeinglimited performance free from any significant optical aberration. An i-band image of the galaxy cluster Abell 370 made using the spectrograph shows faint sources down to ~25 mag. The quality and sensitivity of the optical spectra of the celestial sources obtained from the spectrograph are according to the expectations from a 3.6 m telescope. Several new modes of observations such as polarimetry, fast imaging and monitoring of the atmospheric parameters are being included in the spectrograph. Using a test set-up, single optical pulses from the Crab pulsar were detected using the telescope. The spectrograph is one of the main back-end instruments on the 3.6 m DOT for high-sensitivity observations of celestial objects.Keywords
Astronomical Instrumentation, Charge-Coupled Device Camera, Optical Telescope, Spectrograph.Full Text
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