Related papers: Optical Astronomical Facilities at Nainital, India
The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) is the first focusing high energy (3-79 keV) X-ray observatory operating for four years from low Earth orbit. The X-ray detector arrays are located on the spacecraft bus with the optics…
ARIES Baker-Nunn Schmidt telescope project is converting a Baker-Nunn satellite tracking camera for Astronomical research. Original Baker-Nunn camera produces an extremely large (5X30 degree) curved focal plane at the prime focus for…
After decades of experimental projects and fast-paced technical advances, optical / infrared (O/IR) interferometry has seen a revolution in the last years. The GRAVITY instrument at the VLTI with four 8 meter telescopes reaches thousand…
The new 1.5~m telescope (AZ1500) is operating at the National Astronomical Observatory Rozhen, Bulgaria. This paper gives an overview of the telescope and presents a snapshot of the current performance. Science observations are under way,…
We describe the second telescope of the Wise Observatory, a 0.46-m Centurion 18 (C18) installed in 2005, which enhances significantly the observing possibilities. The telescope operates from a small dome and is equipped with a large-format…
Intensity interferometry exploits a quantum optical effect in order to measure objects with extremely small angular scales. The first experiment to use this technique was the Narrabri intensity interferometer, which was successfully used in…
The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission, launched on 13 June 2012, is the first focusing high-energy X-ray telescope in orbit. NuSTAR operates in the band from 3 -- 79 keV, extending the sensitivity of focusing far beyond…
MAAT is proposed as a visitor mirror-slicer optical system that will allow the OSIRIS spectrograph on the 10.4-m Gran telescopio CANARIAS (GTC) the capability to perform Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS) over a seeing-limited FoV…
The MAGIC telescopes are two Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) located on the Canary island of La Palma. With 17m diameter mirror dishes and ultra-fast electronics, they provide an energy threshold as low as 50 GeV for…
MISTRAL is a visible and near infrared imager and spectrograph working with the $1.93m$ telescope at L'Observatoire de Haute-Provence. The goal of the present project is to design and build one custom lens covering the entire working band…
Deep neural networks (DNNs) have shown exceptional performance when trained on well-illuminated images captured by Electro-Optical (EO) cameras, which provide rich texture details. However, in critical applications like aerial perception,…
Multi-application Solar Telescope is a 50 cm off-axis Gregorian telescope that has been installed at the lake site of Udaipur Solar Observatory. For quasi-simultaneous photospheric and chromospheric observations, a narrow-band imager has…
The MAGIC telescope with its 17m diameter mirror is today the largest operating single-dish Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescope (IACT). It is located on the Canary Island La Palma, at an altitude of 2200m above sea level, as part of the Roque…
Beginning in Fall 2018, the VERITAS high energy gamma-ray observatory (Amado, AZ) was upgraded to enable Stellar Intensity Interferometry (SII) observations during bright moon conditions. The system potentially allows VERITAS to spatially…
A system of 5,020 robotic fiber positioners was installed in 2019 on the Mayall Telescope, at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The robots automatically re-target their optical fibers every 10 - 20 minutes, each to a precision of several…
The TACTIC $\gamma$-ray telescope, equipped with a light collector of area $\sim$9.5m$^2$ and a medium resolution imaging camera of 349-pixels, has been in operation at Mt.Abu, India since 2001. This paper describes the main features of its…
The Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST) is a concept for an 8-meter to 16-meter UVOIR space observatory for launch in the 2025-2030 era. ATLAST will allow astronomers to answer fundamental questions at the forefront…
The Calar Alto Observatory, located at 2168m height above the sea level in continental Europe, holds a significant number of astronomical telescopes and experiments, covering a large range of the electromagnetic domain, from gamma-ray to…
An architectural framework for implementing a distributed observatory control system is presented here. It has been partially realized and tested in the 2m optical and infrared Observatory at Pune, India.
Imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) are equipped with sensitive photomultiplier tube (PMT) cameras. Exposure to high levels of background illumination degrades the efficiency of and potentially destroys these photo-detectors…