The International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) is the India’s first liquid mirror telescope and is the largest in Asia. The one of a kind telescope will scan the sky for transitory or variable objects like supernovae, gravitational lenses, and asteroids.
Observe objects from Himalayas
ILMT will observe all the objects from an altitude of 2,450 metres in the Himalayas. The International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT), located on the premises of the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) in Nainital, is indeed the world’s only operational liquid-mirror telescope.
Professor Dipankar Banerjee said “Devasthal is regarded as among the best astronomical observation sites” .The ILMT will look for new galaxies and other astronomical sources to use in research and studies.
Astronomers of three countries join together to built the telescope
Astronomers from three major countries, Belgium, Canada, and India will collaborated to build the telescope. To capture, focus light, the equipment utilises a 4-meter-diameter spinning mirror made of a thin layer of liquid mercury.
“Mainly we do discovery and image processing at the zenith, the highest point in the sky. This is a research telescope that is likely to find new objects,” said Kuntal Mithra.
“The earth’s rotation creates the pictures to drift across the camera, however the camera compensates for this movement electronically.” Paul Hickson stated.
Universities to collaborate for telescope
The telescope is a collaboration of many universities from around the world, includes:
• University of Toronto
• University of Victoria
• York University
• Academy of Sciences and National University of Uzbekistan
• University of Liege
• Royal Observatory of Belgium
• Academy of Sciences and National University of Uzbekistan
