India to develop world’s largest solar telescope

BANGALORE :India is all set to build the world’s largest solar telescope measuring two meters in diameter. Projected to be ready by 2013, the detailed report on designing the telescope is being prepared and will be sent to the ministry of science and technology by 2009.

The project, which is being pegged at Rs350 crore, is estimated to take three years for completion after getting the go-ahead from the central government, said the director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), SS Hasan. “The telescope itself costs around Rs150 crore,” he added.

The solar telescope that will help study the microscopic structure of the sun and derive specific observations that are still speculative in nature, involves other key scientific installations like Indian Space Research Organisation, Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational-Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and Inter-University Centre. The project when announced two years ago in Bangalore was termed as Asia’s largest telescope. “The optical telescope Keck of 10 meters in Hawaii’s Mauna Kea is the largest. But among the solar telescopes, ours will be the largest and India’s first,” Hassan explained. The larger the diameter, the larger the surface available to absorb the sunlight and more rays of sun can be collected per second.

Three sites have been identified to set up the instrument: Hanle and Leh in Ladakh and Devasthal in Nainital.
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