The Hindu : New Delhi News : Delhi University opens its eyes to the universe

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 15, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Delhi University opens its eyes to the universe

Lakshmi B. Ghosh

State-of-art telescope acquired; zoom-in time for star-gazers

NEW DELHI: Nearly two decades after Haley's Comet whizzed past the earth, the sky is finally opening up for Delhi University's star-gazers. Standing tall in the heart of North Campus, the observation tower in the multi-storey science block is gearing up for an all-new date with the galaxy.

An attempt to revive interest in astronomy and provide "real" exposure to interested students, the Observation Dome will after a gap of nearly two decades now have a telescope to help students, researchers and even the public know the universe better. The last time a celestial spectacle was witnessed from the dome was in the 1980s for the Haley's Comet.

"The idea is not just to help our young research students in their work. We want this to be open to everyone and so have decided that we will allow the public access to the telescope too on special occasions or every two or three months. Students can be allowed to come as part of school tours too,'' says the Head of the Physics and Astro-Physics Department, M.P.Srivastava.

Being seen as a major improvement on the six-inch telescope of the Department, the new CGE-1100 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope has 200 per cent more light gathering power. With the Department of Physics and Astrophysics finally acquiring the 11-inch Celestron Telescope and a CCD camera and a photometer, the countdown to the grand experience has already begun. Completely computerised, the Celestron CGE-1100 can point to any part of the sky automatically using the global positioning satellites.

"The telescope we had before this was a manual American model. With technology changing, it became obsolete for us. In fact, it was the last time that we used the telescope.

Things will be very different with the new model coming in,'' says the head of the Department, H.P.Singh.

To be placed in the Observation Dome that housed the old telescope, finishing touches are being currently given to the dome. While a new motor has been installed to enable the dome to rotate, work is about to begin on the observation slit doors that will be slid open in the night to watch the sky.

Further, with the dome in need of better security, the University is also looking into the installing security grills. The telescope will enable viewing of the moon's disk, streamers, numerous mountain ranges, craters and also the lunar eclipse. And while the sun too can be viewed with the help of a good solar filter, the telescope will now mean being able to watch Jupiter's great red spot, Saturn's ring structure and even Neptune and Pluto apart from the various galaxies and comets.

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