Vainu Bappu Observatory, Kavalur, Javadi Hills
The Vainu
Bappu Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by Indian Institute of
Astrophysics. It is located at Kavalur in the Javadi
Hills, near Vaniyambadi in Vellore
district in the Indian state
of Tamilnadu. It is 200 km south-west of Chennai & 175 km southeast of Bangalore. Established in the 1970s, VBO hosts the 1m Carl Zeiss
Telescope, and the 2.3m Vainu Bappu telescope. This is 11 kms from
Jamunamarathur on the border of Vellore District.
This is
the biggest observatory in Asia. Astronomy, stargazing and research on the
stars are the main activities of this observatory. This is under the control of
Government of India for protection and maintenance. Scientists from all over
the country and abroad visit this place for observation and research. The
biggest telescope that is controlled by computers is one of the main
attractions for tourists. Situated in a hundred acre plot, the other guests
apart from visitors and locals are deer, snakes and scorpions. This Observatory
is owned and operated by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics.
The
place was selected by Vainu Bapu, an Indian astronomer. This observatory
started functioning from 1967. The telescope inside the premises is named as
Vainu Bappu Telescope after the famous astronomer. The Kavalur
Observatory is another main place in the Jamanamarathur. The Kavalur
Observatory is located in a 100 acre forest which having besides a number of
medicinal plants with an occasional appearance of some wild animals like deer,
snakes and scorpions.
Vainu
Bappu Observatory's swansong was the 2.3-metre aperture telescope, designed and
built within the country. The gigantic telescope of 93 inch diameter aperture
is installed in the observatory. The telescope is tipped as the biggest one in
Asian region. Very clear sky in the night is distinctly tailor made situation
for Kavalur area. It has thus become an ideal location for watching the celestial
bodies. Many astrophysicists throng this facility for deeper study of distant
heavenly objects. The observatory has seamlessly blended the nature and the
human urge of development and progress.
History
The
Vainu Bappu Observatory of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics traces its
origin back to the year 1786 when William
Petrie set up his private
observatory at his garden house at Egmore, Madras, which eventually came to be
known as the Madras Observatory. Later it was moved over to Kodaikanal and
functioned there as the Kodaikanal Observatory since 1899.
However,
Kodaikanal had very few nights available for observation and hence astronomers
searched for a new site after India's independence. M.K.
Vainu Bappu who took over as the
Director of the Kodaikanal Observatory in 1960, found a sleepy little hamlet
called Kavalur in the Javadi Hills as a suitable site for establishing optical
telescopes for observing celestial objects. This came to be known as Kavalur
Observatory.
Later
on, autonomy was obtained and the Head Quarters moved over to Bangalore
with the new name as the Indian Institute of Astrophysics. Observations began
in 1968 with a 38 cm telescope made in the backyard of the Kodaikanal
Observatory.
Location
Kavalur
observatory is located in Kavalur in the Javadi Hills in Alangayam, Vellore
District. The Kavalur Observatory is located in a 100-acre forest land in Tamil
Nadu which is strewn with a variety of greenery of tropical region besides a
number of medicinal plants with an occasional appearance of some wildlife like
deer, snakes and scorpions. Several varieties of birds have also been spotted
in the campus.
The
observatory is at an altitude of 725m above mean sea level (longitude 78° 49.6'
E; latitude 12° 34.6' N). Apart from being reasonably away from city lights and
industrial areas, the location has been chosen in order to be closer to the
earth's equator for covering both northern and southern hemispheres with equal
ease.
In
addition, its longitudinal position is such that it is the only major
astronomical facility between Australia and South Africa for observing the
southern objects. The Vainu Bappu Observatory is located about 175 km
south-east of Bangalore, and about 200 km south-west of Chennai (formerly
Madras).
Initial
Setup
The
first telescope was of 38 cm (15 inch) aperture, with which astronomical
observations were started in 1968 at Kavalur Observatory. The 75 cm (30 inch)
telescope has been completely designed and fabricated at the workshops of the
Indian Institute of Astrophysics. In 1972 a 1 metre (40 inch) telescope made by
Carl Zeiss Jena was installed at Kavalur.
2.3 Metre
Vainu Bappu Telescope
Vainu Bappu’s
swansong was the 2.3 metre (93 inch) aperture telescope, designed and built within
the country. Bappu died in 1982 and would not see the completion of this
telescope.
In a
befitting tribute, the then Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi, at a function
held at Kavalur on 6 January 1986, named the observatory as Vainu Bappu
Observatory and the 2.3 metre telescope as Vainu Bappu Telescope.
The
telescope is so powerful that it can easily resolve a 25 paisa coin kept forty
kilometres away. Deep sky observations are carried out with this telescope
using a variety of focal plane instruments. The equatorially mounted
horse-shoe-yoke structure of the telescope is ideally suited for low latitudes
and permits easy observation near the north celestial pole.
The
telescope has an F/3.25 paraboloid primary of 2.3 m diameter with the prime
focus image scale of 27 arc sec /mm and a Cassegrain focus image scale of 6.7 arc
sec/mm. This telescope has been operated as a national facility and attracts
proposals from all over the country and sometimes from outside India.
Equipment
The
observatory is home to the Vainu Bappu Telescope, the largest telescope in
Asia. It has a diameter of 2.3 meters and was first used in 1986. Along with
the Vainu Bappu telescope, the observatory has two other telescopes: A 1 meter
Zeiss manufactured and another 75 centimeter Cassegrain reflector currently
being refurbished. The observatory also has a Fabry–Pérot interferometer.
Technical details:
·
Primary
Mirror Diameter: 234 cm
·
Prime
focus: f/3.25 with a scale of 27".1/mm
·
Cassegrain
focus: f/13 with a scale of 6".8/mm
·
Guiding: remote, manual
guiding
Instruments available:
At PRIME
focus:
·
Imaging
Camera with a 3-element Wynne corrector
At CASSEGRAIN
focus:
·
Medium
resolution Spectroploarimeter
·
Medium
resolution Optometrics Research Spectrograph (OMRS)
Detector:
·
1024x1024
pixels TEK CCD, with a pixel size of 24 micrometres
Discoveries
The 1
metre telescope is associated with two unique discoveries in the solar system.
In the year 1972, atmosphere was detected around Jupiter's satellite Ganymede and in the year 1977, participated in the
observations that confirmed rings were discovered around the planet Uranus. In 1984, Kavalur reported the discovery of a thin
outer ring around Saturn.
On 17
February 1988, a new minor planet was discovered using the 45 cm Schmidt
telescope. It has been named 4130
Ramanujan after the Indian
mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan. This is the first such discovery from India in the 20th century.
Scientific
Activities
Front-line
research is being carried out with the help of the optical telescopes at Vainu
Bappu Observatory using several focal plane instrumentational facilities. The
ongoing programmes include observations of stars, star
clusters, novae, supernovae, blazars, galaxies, optical imaging of gamma-ray burst fields, stellar populations, solar system
objects and many others.
The
telescopes at the observatory had started with relatively modest focal
plane instruments and
later on graduated to more sophisticated ones. These include cameras for fast
photography, photoelectric photometers, a single-channel photoelectric spectrum scanner, a
medium resolution spectrograph, a quartz-prism calibration spectrograph, infrared photometer,
image tube spectrograph, a Universal Astronomical Grating Spectrograph (UAGS
from Zeiss), high-resolution echelle spectrograph and a polarimeter.
Photographic
plates were the principal detectors in the early days. Presently the charge-coupled devices (CCD) have replaced the photographic plates. Some
micro-processor-controlled photon counting systems were designed and fabricated
which have been used in a variety of observational projects. A fibre linked
echelle spectrograph is under construction.
On
campus maintenance facilities like aluminizing plants for coating the telescope
mirrors, mechanical and electrical workshops, electronics labs along with
a liquid nitrogen plant are at hand for the smooth functioning of
the observatory. Highly advanced technical facilities like SUN workstations are
available at the telescopes for handling the CCD data, along with specialised
data reduction packages such as IRAF, STSDAS and DAOPHOT. Communication
facilities, like e-mail via VSAT satellite connection, are available for all
users for the telescopes.
A
programme of ultra-flow dispersion spectroscopy was successfully used to survey
stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Of the ten supernovae observed so far,
SN1987A in LMC was observed in great detail using the 1 m and the 75 cm
telescopes despite its low elevation in the southern sky, proving the worth of
the geographic location of Kavalur. In fact the observations of the supernova
were started within 48 hours of the discovery.
Observational
studies of evolved stars, in particular studies related to their evolutionary
aspects, carried out at this observatory, have received critical acclaim and
international recognition. The observational facilities at this Observatory
have yielded many Ph.D theses for the scholars of the Institute as well as of
other institutes and universities in the country.
Field
Stations
While
the Vainu Bappu Observatory is one of the field stations of the Bangalore-based
Indian Institute of Astrophysics, which is primarily devoted to research
activities using the optical telescopes, the other field stations at Kodaikanal
and at Gauribidanur are equipped for solar observations and radio astronomy
programmes respectively.
At
present one of the challenging projects undertaken by the Institute is the
installation of a 2 metre remotely operated optical and infrared telescope at
Hanle in the Ladakh region of Himalayas. This will be the highest ground-based
telescope in the world. A new field station called Centre for Research and
Education in Science and Technology (CREST) is also being set up at Hosakote
near Bangalore.
Popularizing
Astronomy
The
observatory encourages scientific interactions with the public. Special
attention is given to students at various levels. The observatory is open to
public on all Saturdays at which time visits to the various telescopes and star
watching programmes are organized.
Observing
Conditions
Weather:
Peninsular
India is usually hit by two monsoons in a year - the southwest monsoon starting
around the beginning of June, and the northeast monsoon which settles in around
the end of October. The peak observing season is January - April or May.
Seeing:
The
telescope seeing at the Zeiss 1m telescope is very close to the site seeing and
is in the range of ~0".8-2" (FWHM), 1.5" being typical. The dome
+ mirror seeing at the Vainu Bappu Telescope (VBT) are somewhat worse; the
range is ~1"-3" (FWHM), with ~2".5 being the typical value.
Tourist
Information
The
night sky can be seen through the 15cm telescope on every Saturday from 7 PM to
10 PM, if the sky is clear."
Contact
Vainu
Bappu Observatory
Indian
Institute of Astrophysics
Department
of Science & Technology
Government
of India
Kavalur,
Alangayam - 635 701
Vellore
District - Tamil Nadu
Phone: +91 4174 - 65222,
65255, 65268
Phone: +91 4174 203119,
203118, 203117
Mobile: +91 9787462052
Fax: +91 4174 – 65255
Connectivity
By Air:
The
nearest airport to VBO is Bangalore, which besides being an international
airport, is connected by direct flights to Chennai (formerly Madras), Mumbai
(formerly Bombay), New Delhi and Kolkata.
By Train:
The
nearest train stations are Vaniyambadi (29km from VBO) and Jolarpettai (46km
from VBO), which have connections from Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and New
Delhi.
By Road:
The VBO,
located near the village of Kavalur, may be reached by road from Bangalore, via
Hosur-Krishnagiri-Vaniyambadi-Alangayam-Kavalur.
Other Places of Interest in Javadi Hills:
For
brief details, please refer below link;
http://tamilnadu-favtourism.blogspot.com/2013/04/javadi-hills.html
http://tamilnadu-favtourism.blogspot.com/2013/04/javadi-hills.html
