The upcoming 4m ILMT facility and data reduction pipeline testing

TL;DR

The paper discusses the recent completion, capabilities, and data reduction pipeline testing of the upcoming 4m ILMT, a telescope designed for continuous sky observation and variable source discovery.

Contribution

It provides the latest updates on the ILMT facility, its expected first light, and details of the data reduction pipeline preparation.

Findings

Installation of ILMT completed at Devasthal observatory.

Expected first light in early 2022.

Data reduction pipeline steps are outlined.

Abstract

The 4m International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) installation activities have recently been completed at the Devasthal observatory (Uttarakhand, India). The ILMT will perform continuous observation of a narrow strip of the sky ($\sim$27$'$) passing over the zenith in the SDSS $g'$, $r'$ and $i'$ bands. In combination with a highly efficient 4k $\times$ 4k CCD camera and an optical corrector, the images will be secured at the prime focus of the telescope using the Time Delayed Integration technique. The ILMT will reach $\sim$22.5 mag ($g'$-band) in a single scan and this limiting magnitude can be further improved by co-adding the nightly images. The uniqueness of the one-day cadence and deeper imaging with the ILMT will make it possible to discover and study various galactic and extra-galactic sources, especially variable ones. Here, we present the latest updates of the ILMT facility and discuss the preparation for the first light, which is expected during early 2022. We also briefly explain different steps involved in the ILMT data reduction pipeline.