Indian Institute of Astrophysics

The Indian Institute of Astrophysics is an astrophysical institute in India. The headquarters is located in Koramangala neighborhood of Bengaluru. A facility of the Institute, the Centre for Research and Education in Science and Technology ( CREST) ​​, is located in Hosakote (14 ° 16 ' 47 " N, 77 ° 10' 48" O14.27972222222277.18 ). The Institute is managed by the Department of Science and Technology of the Indian state.

The origin of the Institute can be traced back to a private observatory, founded by William Petrie (died 1816), an officer of the East India Company. He built the observatory in Egmore, Chennai (formerly Madras). This observatory was taken over in 1790 under the scientific leadership of the astronomer Michael Topping of the East India Company. Shortly thereafter (1792 ) were enlarged and relocation to Nungambakkam, Chennai. Thus, the first modern observatory outside Europe arose.

From the Institute several astronomical observatories are cared for in India.

Kodaikanal Observatory

The Kodaikanal Observatory is located in the Palani hills in southern India. It was founded in 1899 as a Solar Physics Observatory and all the activities of Madras were relocated there. The 20 cm refractor is still used occasionally the observation of comets and occultations, at other times it is open to visitors.

The Observatory has an astronomy museum, where among other things, a current sun image and the corresponding Fraunhofer spectrum is shown. In addition there is a library with valuable historical books.

Vainu - BAPPU Observatory

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The Vainu - BAPPU Observatory, or " VBO " is located in the Javadi Hills near the town Kavalur in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, 175 km southeast of Bangalore. It is named in honor of Vainu BAPPU (1927-1982), President of the International Astronomical Union, which was very active in astronomy in India.

Instruments

The largest telescope of the Institute since 1986 the Vainu - BAPPU telescope, which is one of the largest telescopes in Asia. It is a reflecting telescope with a diameter of the primary mirror of 2.34 m and a focal length of 7.6 m, the entire telescope has an effective focal length of 30.42 m. For the telescope a number of instruments are available:

  • Image sensor with 3 -element Wynne corrector for the prime focus
  • Spectropolarimeter for the Cassegrain focus,
  • OMRS, a medium resolution spectrograph of the company Optometrics Research, also for the Cassegrain focus.

Other telescopes of the observatory are a 1-m Zeiss telescope and a 0.75 m telescope. The observatory has further a Fabry -Perot interferometer.

Research

A continuing research goal is the observation of stars, star clusters, novae, supernovae, blazars, galaxies, imaging of gamma-ray bursts, stellar populations, solar system objects and various others.

With the 1 - m telescope reach two special discoveries in our solar system. In 1972 was found that Jupiter's moon Ganymede has an atmosphere, and 1977 rings were first observed on the planet Uranus.

On February 17, 1988 asteroid was discovered with a 45 -cm Schmidt telescope. He was " 4130 Ramanujan ", named after the mathematician S. Ramanujan outstanding Indian. The Minor Planet Center has the VBO awarded the observatory code 220.

Many stars of the Large Magellanic Cloud was spectroscopically with extremely low dispersion. This ten novae were examined, and the supernova 1987A.

Gauribidanur Observatory

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The Gauribidanur Observatory has a number of instruments for radio astronomy:

  • Gauribandur Telescope ( GEETEE ), a telescope for observation in Decameterbereich. It consists of 1000 dipole antennas, which are arranged in a T configuration. The east-west extent is 1.4 km to the south arm is 0.5 km long.
  • Gauribandur radio heliograph ( GRH ), for two-dimensional imaging of the solar corona in the frequency range 40-150 MHz. It consists of 192 Logarithmic - periodic dipoles, which are also located in a T-configuration.
  • High Resolution radio spectrograph, it consists of eight log-periodic dipoles, and is used in conjunction with the GRH for detecting short-term events.
  • Polarization interferometer, it consists of 32 log-periodic dipoles into four groups with respect to the north-south direction by 0 °, 45 °, 90 ° and 135 ° rotated. It is used to investigate the magnetic field of the sun.

In addition, it is involved in projects outside India:

  • Mauritius Radio Telescope ( MRT) and
  • Brazilian decimetre Array ( BDA)

Indian Astronomical Observatory

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The Indian Astronomical Observatory is located at 4500 meters above sea level and is one of the highest observatory in the world. It is located in the Hanle Valley, Chang Tang, Ladakh, northern of the western Himalayas. The high elevation and the climate of the region caused by the low water content of the atmosphere allow excellent opportunity to observe in the optical, in the infrared, submillimeter and millimeter range.

  • The observatory has since 2001 on a remotely controllable 2 -m telescope, the Himalayan Chandra Telescope ( HCT) for observations in the visible and infrared spectral range. The remote controller of the telescope is from CREST its own satellite link.
  • In collaboration with the University of Washington is located on the site of a 0.5 m telescope for the continuous observation of the active galaxy centers. The telescope is part of the Antipodal Transient Observatory, the second telescope is located in Sonoita (Arizona ).
  • A 0.3 m telescope for differential image motion observation
  • A 220 GHz radiometer
  • The HAGAR telescope for observation of astronomical gamma-ray sources. The telescope consists of seven stations, each equipped with 7 mirrors. Overall, a mirror area of ​​31 square meters for observations obtained from 50 GeV.
Palni Hills Cassegrain reflector Ganymede (moon) Rings of Uranus Sonoita (Arizona)
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