The Indian Astronomical Observatory is located at an altitude of 4,500 meters in the Himalayas. A 2-meter optical infrared telescope is installed there and operated remotely. This telescope will be part of the Antipodal Transient Observatory consisting of two telescopes in India and Arizona monitoring active galactic nuclei. Various instrumentation has been installed including a differential image motion monitor, radiometer, and weather station to characterize the site.

1. The Indian Astronomical
Observatory, the high-altitude station
of IIA is situated at an altitude of 4500
metres above mean sea level to the
north of Western Himalayas. A 2-m
optical infrared telescope is installed
at the observatory. This telescope is
remotely operated from CREST,
Hosakote, using dedicated satellite
links. This telescope will be one of the
pair of telescopes constituting
Antipodal Transient Observatory. A
0.3-m Differential Image Motion
Monitor, a 220-GHz radiometer and
an Automated Weather Station have
been installed to facilitate continuation
of site characterisation.

2. The survey camp was established at
the edge of Nilamkhul Plain, due north
of Digpa-ratsa Ri in 1994
December.The highest peak in Digpa-
ratsa Ri is at an altitude of 4517
meters. The location of the 2-m
Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT)
is to the east of the peak at an i
altitude of 4500 meters above msl.
The site characterization activity
includes hourly monitoring of cloud
cover, ambient temperature and
relative humidity, wind speed and wind
direction, solar radiation and rainfall.
Occasional measurements of seeing,
sky brightness, extinction and
atmospheric water vapour have also
been undertaken.
.
INDIAN ASTRONOMICAL
OBSERVATORY SITE

3. Antipodal Transient Observatory
constitutes two 0.5-m f/10 Cassegrain
telescopes located at IAO and
Arizona,180 deg apart in longitude for
monitoring Active Galactic Nuclei. IIA
and McDonell Center for the Space
Sciences of Washington University, St.
Louis, USA, will operate these two
telescopes.The telescopes will be
equipped with an optical CCD imager
and be used in both robotic and
remote observing modes. 70% of the
telescope time will be used for
continuous photometric monitoring of
AGN, while the remaining time will be
used for photometry of targest of
opportunity and other programmes of
interest. ANTIPODAL TRANSIENT
OBSERVATORY, HANLE

4. HIMALAYAN CHANDRA
TELESCOPE
MEADE TELESCOPE

5. 2 M TELESCOPE - OPTICAL CCD IMAGER
The optical CCD imager is based on an E2V 2K X 4K chip with pixel
size of 15 micron. The image scale and field covered with this CCD are ideally
suited to exploit the telescope under sub-arcsecond seeing conditions. Recent
tests at the telescope indicated a fine tuning of the CCD electronics, which is
being done at the laboratory at IIA, Bangalore.
2 M TELESCOPE - Near IR Imager
The near-infrared imager is built around a 512 X 512 HgCdTe array of 18
micron pixel size. The image scale of this instrument will help in subarcsec
imaging and reaching out to fainter limits. The instrument has two cameras,
one 1:1 camera (Camera-A) and another 0.5:1 camera (Camera-B) giving a
wider field.
2 M TELESCOPE

6. 2 M TELESCOPE - HANLE FAINT OBJECT SPECTROGRAPH CAMERA
Hanle Faint Object Spectrograph Camera is an optical imager cum
spectrograph built collaboratively at the Copenhagen University Observatory. The
instrument is a focal reducer type of instrument allowing for a larger field coverage
for a given detector, and also low and medium resolution grism spectroscopy. It is
possible to shift between the imaging and spectroscopic modes of operation in
seconds.

7. .
2M HIMALAYAN CHANDRA TELESCOPE: ASTRONOMY IMAGES
Mars at
Opposition
Eagle Nebula
Brown Dwarf-
2MASSW

8. 2M HIMALAYAN CHANDRA TELESCOPE: ASTRONOMY IMAGES
Open Cluster-
NGC6819 Ring Nebula Crab Nebula

9. 2M HIMALAYAN CHANDRA TELESCOPE: ASTRONOMY IMAGES
Starbust Galaxy NGC
1637
Supernova SN2003gs Supernova SN2001X

10. Star bust Barred Galaxy
NGC3504
Starbust Barred Galaxy
NGC925
Nebular Remnant of
1901 outburst of
Nova Gk Persei
2M HIMALAYAN CHANDRA TELESCOPE: ASTRONOMY IMAGES