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The Indian Astronomical Observatory, the high-altitude station of IIA is situated at an altitude of 4500 metres above mean sea level to the north of Western Himalayas. A 2-m optical infrared telescope is installed at the observatory. This telescope is remotely operated from CREST, Hosakote, using dedicated satellite links. This telescope will be one of the pair of telescopes constituting Antipodal Transient Observatory. A 0.3-m Differential Image Motion Monitor, a 220-GHz radiometer and an Automated Weather Station have been installed to facilitate continuation of site characterisation.

The survey camp was established at the edge of Nilamkhul Plain, due north of Digpa-ratsa Ri in 1994 December.The highest peak in Digpa-ratsa Ri is at an altitude of 4517 meters. The location of the 2-m Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT) is to the east of the peak at an i altitude of 4500 meters above msl. The site characterization activity includes hourly monitoring of cloud cover, ambient temperature and relative humidity, wind speed and wind direction, solar radiation and rainfall. Occasional measurements of seeing, sky brightness, extinction and atmospheric water vapour have also been undertaken..

INDIAN ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY SITE

Antipodal Transient Observatory constitutes two 0.5-m f/10 Cassegrain telescopes located at IAO and Arizona,180 deg apart in longitude for monitoring Active Galactic Nuclei. IIA and McDonell Center for the Space Sciences of Washington University, St. Louis, USA, will operate these two telescopes.The telescopes will be equipped with an optical CCD imager and be used in both robotic and remote observing modes. 70% of the telescope time will be used for continuous photometric monitoring of AGN, while the remaining time will be used for photometry of targest of opportunity and other programmes of interest.

ANTIPODAL TRANSIENT OBSERVATORY, HANLE

HIMALAYAN CHANDRA TELESCOPE

MEADE TELESCOPE

2 M TELESCOPE - OPTICAL CCD IMAGER The optical CCD imager is based on an E2V 2K X 4K chip with pixel size of 15 micron. The image scale and field covered with this CCD are ideally suited to exploit the telescope under sub-arcsecond seeing conditions. Recent tests at the telescope indicated a fine tuning of the CCD electronics, which is being done at the laboratory at IIA, Bangalore.

2 M TELESCOPE - Near IR Imager The near-infrared imager is built around a 512 X 512 HgCdTe array of 18 micron pixel size. The image scale of this instrument will help in subarcsec imaging and reaching out to fainter limits. The instrument has two cameras, one 1:1 camera (Camera-A) and another 0.5:1 camera (Camera-B) giving a wider field.

2 M TELESCOPE

2 M TELESCOPE - HANLE FAINT OBJECT SPECTROGRAPH CAMERA Hanle Faint Object Spectrograph Camera is an optical imager cum spectrograph built collaboratively at the Copenhagen University Observatory. The instrument is a focal reducer type of instrument allowing for a larger field coverage for a given detector, and also low and medium resolution grism spectroscopy. It is possible to shift between the imaging and spectroscopic modes of operation in seconds.

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2M HIMALAYAN CHANDRA TELESCOPE: ASTRONOMY IMAGES

Mars at Opposition Eagle Nebula

Brown Dwarf-2MASSW


Open Cluster-NGC6819 Ring Nebula Crab Nebula


Starbust Galaxy NGC 1637

Supernova SN2003gs Supernova SN2001X

Star bust Barred Galaxy NGC3504

Starbust Barred Galaxy NGC925

Nebular Remnant of 1901 outburst of Nova Gk Persei


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