Context
India’s first liquid-mirror telescope, which will observe asteroids, supernovae, space debris and all other celestial objects from an altitude of 2,450 metres in the Himalayas, has seen its first light.
About International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT)
- ILMT will be the third telescope to be operating from Devasthal after the 3.6-metre Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) — the largest in India commissioned in 2016 — and the 1.3-metre Devasthal Fast Optical Telescope (DFOT) inaugurated in 2010.
- The telescope was designed and built at the Advanced Mechanical and Optical Systems Corporation and the Centre Spatial de Liege, Belgium.
- The major instrumentation funding was jointly provided by Canada and Belgium while India will be responsible for the operations and upkeep of the telescope.
- This was Established on the campus of the Devasthal Observatory of the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) in Nainital.
- The International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) is the only liquid-mirror telescope operational anywhere in the world.
- Only a handful of liquid-mirror telescopes have been previously built but were majorly used either for tracking satellites or for military purposes.
- It will also hold the unique tag of being the maiden liquid-telescope globally to be designed exclusively for astronomical purposes.
