New optical telescope projects at Devasthal Observatory
Ram Sagar, Brijesh Kumar, Amitesh Omar, A. K. Pandey

TL;DR
Devasthal Observatory in India is developing advanced optical telescopes, including a 1.3-m, 4-m liquid mirror, and 3.6-m telescopes, to enhance astronomical observations and facilitate time-critical studies of variable and transient objects.
Contribution
This paper details the new optical telescope projects at Devasthal, including their specifications, instrumentation, and scientific goals, highlighting the site's strategic importance.
Findings
Existing 1.3-m telescope performs wide field photometry.
Upcoming 4-m liquid mirror telescope will image galactic plane strips.
Site characteristics support high-quality optical astronomy.
Abstract
Devasthal, located in the Kumaun region of Himalayas is emerging as one of the best optical astronomy site in the continent. The minimum recorded ground level atmospheric seeing at the site is 0.6 arcsec with median value at 1.1 arcsec. Currently, a 1.3-m fast (f/4) wide field-of-view (66 arcmin) optical telescope is operating at the site. In near future, a 4-m liquid mirror telescope in collaboration with Belgium and Canada, and a 3.6-m optical telescope in collaboration with Belgium are expected to be installed in 2013. The telescopes will be operated by Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences. The first instruments on the 3.6-m telescope will be in-house designed and assembled faint object spectrograph and camera. The second generation instruments will be including a large field-of-view optical imager, high resolution optical spectrograph, integral field unit and an…
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