Telescopes of India

India has Some of the best telescopes of the world .Technically speaking these are observatories , they may have multiple telescopes. Many of them are very unique while some of them are just best in class. It was a difficult task searching for them since there wasn’t any central list or article on India’s telescopes when I wrote this article. I found 15 and here they are in no particular order.

#1 High altitude gamma ray observatory (HAGAR)

• It is located in Hanle, ladakh.
• 7 telescopes in a pattern circle of radius 50m.
• Total area of it mirrors is 4.4 sqmtrs.
• Operated by TIFR and IIA.
• Prime targets include Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) and gamma ray pulsars.
• You can visit the official website HERE .

#2 Himalayan Chandra observatory

• The telescope is Located in Hanle ,Ladakh,just neighbouring HAGAR telescope.
• It is Also called the Indian astronomical observatory.
• Height of 4,500 meters on Mt. Saraswati.
• It has a 2m telescope mirror.
• It can take images in both Optical and  infrared wavelengths.
• Operated remotely via a remote link by IIA.
• You can visit the official website HERE .

#3 Vainu Bappu Observatory

• This Observatory is Located in vellore ,Tamil Nadu,India.
• William petrie had setup a observatory here which was later shifted to Kodaikanal which itself is a legend from all the telescopes in India .
• Kodaikanal Observatory is featured ahead in the page.
• It is 725m above sea level.
• Vainu Bappu observatory consists of a total of 3 telescopes
• The biggest is a 2.3 m telescope along with a  1m Zeiss made telescope and  another 1.3m telescope.
• Vainu bappu passed away before the construction finished , telescope was named in his honour.
• It is Ppowerful enough to resove a 25 paise coin from 40kms away.
• You can visit the official website HERE .

Vainu bappu telescope Discoveries

• It was Associated with discovery of atmosphere around Ganymede ,Jupiter’s moon.
• participated in observations confirming rings around uranus.
• It found thin rings around saturn.
• Found a minor planet and named it 4130 ramanujan.

#4 Girwali observatory ,Pune

• It is located Near junnar,80 km away from Pune
• it is 1000m above sea level.
• Controlled by the IUCAA, which is group fo multiple unversities.
• they have a foreign made 2m telescope.
• You can visit the official website HERE .

#5 Mount Abu InfraRed Observatory

• Located near Mount Abu, beside guru shikhar.
• It is Operated by ISRO .
• 3 telescopes
• 1.2m is a IR telescope and a 50cm for small bodies like comets and 1m tracking space junk.
• Has its own liquid nitrogen to keep its instruments cool.
• Responsible for finding the Indian planet in the  EPIC constellation of Kepler telescope.
• You can visit the official website HERE .

#6 Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES)

• Located in Devasthal,Nanital.
• 2 telescopes
• Joint effort between Belgium,Russia and India.
• India payed majority expenses towards this project.

Biggest telescope in Aisa

• With a diameter of 3.6 m on the main .
• Second telescope has a diameter of 1.3m .
• Approx 120 crore cost.
• You can visit the official website HERE .

#7 Ooty cosmic ray lab

• Called GRAPES-3 (Gamma Ray Astronomy PeV EnergieS phase-3)

• Largest muon telescope in the world.

• Controlled by TIFR and Osaka university,japan
• Mouns are unstable particles produced when cosmic rays hit earth.
• they last for a very short time.
• You can visit the official website HERE .

#8 Udaipur Solar Observatory

• Located on a man made island in Fateh Sagar lake,Udaipur.
• Managed by Physical research lab and Dept. of Space.
• 50 cm telescope.
• PhD. courses offered.
• Lake helps reduce air turbulence by absorbing heat.
• You can visit the official website HERE .

#9 Gauribidanur Radio Observatory

• Located near Bengaluru.
• Operated by Raman Research Institute and IIA.
• Its a Decameter wave radio telescope , which means it has 1000 dipoles arranged in “T” configuration.
• Specifically started to study sun and the sky in low radio frequencies.
• You can visit the official website HERE .

#10 Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope

• Located in Narayangaon,80 km from pune
• Operated by National Center for Radio Astrophysics and TIFR.
• Consists of 30 radio telescopes of 45 meter diameter .
• One of the most sensitive radio telescopes on earth.
• Was used experimentally to live track the ESA Schiaparelli rover landing on mars .
• Played a role in observing center of clusters along with NASA Chandra telescope.
• featured in many research papers around the globe.
• Found the farthest radio galaxy.
• You can visit the official website HERE .

#11 Ooty radio telescope

• Located in Ooty.
• 530 meter long and 30 meter parabolic antenna.
• Telescope rests on a natural slope of 11 degrees which matches the latitude and hence is unique.
• Thats why it can track celestial bodies for 10 hrs
• One of the most sensitive radio telescopes in the world.
• You can visit the official website HERE .

#12 Kodaikanal Solar observatory

• Located in kodaikanal,tamil nadu.
• Maintained by IIA.
• They have 4 telescopes.
• 60cm,20cm,haplha telescope,and a twin telescope.
• White images,hydrogen images,full disk images can be captured.
• Oldest solar observatory in the world .
• More than 100 years of data .
• You can visit the official website HERE .

#13 Nizamia observatory

• Located in Hyderabad
• 2 telescopes .
• Its a refractor telescope.
• Participated in NASA’s astrographic sky survey.
• One of the telescopes dead now.
• other telescope is poorly maintained and rarely used.

#14 ISRO Astrosat

• Most unique Space telescope in the world.
• Located in space.
• Collaboration between many institutes of India .
• Ability to perform observations in IR,optical,UV and Xrays that too simultaneously .
• It helped confirmed supernova findings recently.
• Collects over 420 GB worth of data everyday.
• Astrosat 2 to be launched post 2020.
• You can get more info. HERE .

India’s mystery telescope

#15 MACE telescope India, Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment.

• This telescope was suppose to built by BARC.
• Was suppose to be completed by 2013,later postponed to 2016.
• No news on MACE.
• As per our sources , it is experiencing several problems.
• the structure is unable to bear the wind.
• there are serious electronic issues.
• project progress has decreased a lot .
• leadership issues at the team have reportedly increased the delay.
• hopefully BARC fixes them soon , All the best to them.
• You can visit the official website HERE .

If you want to watch a video with satellite images of each telescope click HERE.

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