Abstract Details
| Name: Bhupesh Saxena Affiliation: M.P. Council of Science and Technology, Bhopal Conference ID: ASI2015_867 Title : Varahmihir Astronomical Observatory, Dongla, Ujjain Authors and Co-Authors : Padmakar Parihar, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore Muneer S. Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore Rajesh Sharma M.P.Council of Science and Technology, Bhopal Pramod K Verma M P Council of Science and Technology, Bhopal Abstract Type : Poster Abstract Category : Instrumentation and Techniques Abstract : M.P. Council of Science and Technology (MPCST), Bhopal has established an astronomical observatory at Dongla, Ujjain, named “Varahmihir Astronomical Observatoryâ€. The place is situated exactly on the tropic of cancer (longitude 75o45’ 45.5â€E and longitude 23o26’43.2â€N), and was a center of ancient Indian astronomy over several hundreds of years. Observatory site is relatively dark, having moderate seeing and found to have a large number of clear nights during September-April months. The long spell of clear nights is best suited for continuous monitoring of variety of variable stars and the transient objects. Observatory has a medium size robotic Optical Telescope equipped with a large format advanced CCD imaging camera. The dome and dome building are made of steel and telescope is installed on the top of 10-m high concrete pier. Inside the observatory campus, guest house, auditorium, library and computing facilities have also been created. The telescope saw the first light on June 10, 2013. Thereafter it took some time to resolve problems of integrating CCD with the telescope as well its close loop cooling mechanism. The telescope now is ready for astronomical observations and educational training programme. In this poster, we report our efforts to characterize the site as well as the telescope-CCD system. We also report preliminary scientific observations carried out using the facility. |