State-of-the-art Telescopes

a) Devasthal Optical Telescope

A state-of-the-art world class 3.6 meter Devasthal Optical Telescope was remotely activated jointly by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India and Prime Minister of Belgium on 30th March 2016. The telescope is installed at Devasthal near Nainital. It is the largest steerable imaging telescope in Asia which is a result of scientific collaboration between the teams of scientists from Aryabhatt Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital, an autonomous institution of DST, and Belgian scientists. The telescope will contribute to observations for frontline scientific research in astronomy and astrophysics.

b) UV Imaging Telescope

UV Imaging telescope developed by Indian Institute of Astrophysics (an autonomous institution of DST) is one of the payloads on ASTROSAT which was launched by ISRO on 28th September 2015. The images received from UVIT have better resolution than the Galex Telescope of NASA. This is a major feat of Indian scientists in development of imaging telescopes.