Indian Institute of Astrophysics, [IIA] Bangalore Infrastructure Details

Debasree Banerjee

Insfrstructure Facilities at Indian Institute of Astrophysics, [IIA] Bangalore:

Library:

• The Indian Institute of Astrophysics library is more than two hundred years old. The library has been continuously gathering astronomical literature in the form of books, journals and catalogues. Today it can boast of housing the largest collection in Astronomy in the country.
• Indian Institute of Astrophysics library provides facility to faculty, students and visiting scholars from around the globe with ready access to complete collections of print and online astronomy resources.
• With 20,000 volumes of books and approximately 78 active serial titles, the breadth of the collection is exceptional. Special strengths of the collection include materials on observational astronomy and theoretical physics and astrophysics, and back volumes of many core journals.
• The library is available from 9 am to 5:30 pm except for sunday.

Observatories:

• Kodaikanal Observatory: For over a century this Observatory has been the principal centre of activity in observational solar physics. At present, the main facility is the solar tower tunnel telescope fitted with a spectrograph. A spectro-polarimeter has also been added. This observatory has a unique collection of the Sun’s photographic images archived over the last hundred years. These images are now being digitized to study the finer details of the Sun, Sun-weather pattern etc. Daily observations of the solar photosphere and chromosphere are being obtained as a part of the synoptic study. In 1909 John Evershed discovered the radial motion in sunspots, now known as the Evershed effect in this observatory.
• Vainu Bappu observatory: This Observatory is situated in Kavalur. This Observatory has various size telescopes. Out of which 102cm telescope is equipped with Echelle Spectrograph, UAGS, Polarimeter and imager.
• Indian Astronomical Observatory: This Observatory is developed in the last decade at Handle in the trans-Himalayan region at an altitude of about 4430m above the mean sea level, which is the highest of its kind in the world. It consists of 2m Himalayan Chandra Telescopeequipped with a faint spectrograph camera, optical and infrared imagers.  This telescope is operated remotely from the Center for Research and Education in Science and Technology at Hosakote near Bangalore with the help of satellite.
• Gauribidanur Radio Observatory: The facilities at the Observatory are unique in their corresponding frequency range. In addition, the institute is also collaborating with the Instituto Nacional De Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE) for the construction of a decimeter radio telescope array in Brazil.

Electronic Division:

• The Electronics Division of IIA has actively involved in the development of various Electronic Systems for use in the field telescopes. The major activities are covered in various sections as below:
  • Telescope Drive and Control System
  • Stellar Backend Instrumentation
  • Radio Astronomy Instrumentation
  • Site Survey Instrumentation

Photonics Division:

• Photonics Division is located at 2A, Bangalore. This Division has facilities for fabricating, testing  and coating of medium and large high precision astronomical optics. It has developed the 234 cm primary mirror for Vainu Bappu Telescope. This division is catering to various external agencies like ISRO and BARC. 

Computer Centre:

• The computer centre of IIA is equipped with Sun machine to meet the needs of scientific community. Indian Institute of Astrophysics is part of National Grid initiative which gives 10  Mbps connectivity between the major institutes of India. It is proposed to set up a Center for Astronomical Data and Software (CADS) as well.