Page 43 - CTB-1 10 May

PIONEERING A NEW FUTURE 43
THE HISTORY
The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) traces its
origin to a 1786 observatory in Madras (now Chennai), which
led to the establishment of the Solar Observatory in 1899 in Kodaikanal (Tamil Nadu). In 1971, the Kodaikanal Observatory became a society with the name Indian Institute of Astrophysics, an autonomous institution, under the Ministry of Tourism & Civil Aviation. The institute came under the umbrella of the Department
of Science & Technology, Government of India, in 1985.
John Evershed experimenting at Srinagar on November 1915
Kodaikanal Observatory: The Madras Observatory established by East India Company in 1761 shifted to Kodaikanal, in 1899 at an altitude of 2350m in Palani hills of Tamil Nadu and was known as Astrophysical Observatory. This observatory is well-equipped with various instruments to study the Sun, space weather, atmospheric studies and seismology. The institute has archived, digitised and made available to the public more than 120 years of valuable solar data, which helps to study long-term activities of the Sun.
Vainu Bappu Observatory, Kavalur: The main observational activities are conducted through 234cm Vainu Bappu Telescope, 102cm, Carl
Zeiss reflector, and the recently added 130cm JC Bhattacharya Telescope with smaller telescopes. All these telescopes are well-equipped with various science instruments, such as medium and high-resolution spectrographs, fiber-fed Echelle spectrographs, OMR spectrograph, optical imager and speckle interferometer and polarimeter.
Radio Observatory, Gauribidanur: This observatory is operated jointly with Raman Research Institute, Bangalore. The main focus here is to study the Sun, solar corona and the details of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). It has a variety of radio telescopes: Decemater wave radio telescope (GEETEE) Gauribidanurradioheliograph (GRAPH); Gauribidanur Low-frequency Solar Spectrograph (GLOSS), Gauribidanur Radio Interferometric Polarimeter (GRIP).
Indian Astronomical Observatory, Leh/Hanle- Ladakh: In 1997, it was decided to develop the necessary infrastructure to set up the Indian Astronomical Observatory and install a 2-meter optical and infrared telescope here. Named the ‘Himalayan Chandra Telescope, (HCT)’ operating at an altitude of 4517 meters above the mean sea level, it is one of the highest optical telescopes
in the world. Presently, Himalayan Faint Object Spectrograph Camera (HFOSC) and TIFR Near- infrared Spectrometer and Camera (TIRSPEC) are being used in optical and near-infrared wavelengths, respectively, for imaging and low-resolution