India sets up first & Asia's largest Liquid-Mirror telescope in Uttarakhand's Devasthal

India has commissioned a one-of-a-kind liquid-mirror telescope atop a mountain in Uttarakhand's Himalayan range that will monitor sky for transitory or variable objects such as supernovae, gravitational lenses, space debris, and asteroids. International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) is country's first and largest liquid-mirror telescope, as well as largest in Asia.

"Built by astronomers from India, Belgium and Cana, novel instrument employs a 4-meter-diameter rotating mirror me up of a thin film of liquid mercury to collect and focus light. It is located at an altitude of 2450 metres at Devasthal Observatory campus of Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), an autonomous institute under Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India in Nainital district, Uttarakhand," Ministry of Science and Technology said in a statement.

Notably, scientists from se three countries spun a pool of mercury which is a reflective liquid, so that surface curved into a parabolic shape which is ideal for focusing light, according to Ministry of Science and Technology. It furr states that a thin transparent film of mylar protects mercury from wind as  reflected light passes through a sophisticated multi-lens optical corrector that produces sharp images over a wide field of view. A large-format electronic camera is also located at focus that records images.

telescope was designed and built by vanced Mechanical and Optical Systems (AMOS) Corporation and Centre Spatial de Liège in Belgium.

'This project will attract and motivate several young minds': Prof Dipankar Banerjee

Director of ARIES, Professor Dipankar Banerjee said that ILMT project will attract and motivate young minds to take up challenging problems. "ILMT is first liquid-mirror telescope designed exclusively for astronomical observations installed at Devasthal Observatory of ARIES...I am hopeful that this project will attract and motivate several young minds from scientific and engineering backgrounds to take up challenging problems," Professor Banerjee said according to a press release from Ministry of Science and Technology. He also stated that Devasthal Observatory now hosts two four-meter class telescopes – ILMT and Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT). Notably, both se telescopes are largest aperture telescopes available in country.

ILMT collaboration includes researchers from ARIES in India, University of Liège and Royal Observatory of Belgium in Belgium, Poznan Observatory in Poland, Ulugh Beg Astronomical Institute of Uzbek Acemy of Sciences and National University of Uzbekistan in Uzbekistan, University of British Columbia, Laval University, University of Montreal, University of Toronto, York University and University of Victoria in Cana, according to Ministry of Science and technology.