Announcement of Opportunity

(Cycle 1: April-June 2003)

The 2-m Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT) was installed at the Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO), Mt. Saraswati, Digpa-ratsa Ri, Hanle at an altitude of 4500 m (15000 ft) above msl by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore, in August 2000. Subsequent efforts were centred on commissioning the first light instruments, performance tests of the telescope, dome and remote operation through dedicated satellite communication link from the Centre for Research & Education in Science & Technology (CREST), Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Hosakote, about 35 km northeast of Bangalore. The first scientific instrument, Himalayan Faint Object Spectrograph Camera (HFOSC) was commissioned in October 2002 and is now available for regular observations. Other first generation instruments: the near-infrared camera and high-resolution CCD imager are scheduled to be commissioned soon and will be made available in future cycles.

Some scientific observations with HCT are already undertaken by the group participating in the commissioning of the telescope and instruments. Based on this experience, IIA has decided to release a part of the telescope time to national astronomers. The telescope time available during the first cycle (April – June 2003) would be about 50% and will be enhanced in stages during the subsequent cycles. The rest of the time will be used for commissioning new instruments and engineering activities with the telescope.

The HCT Time Allocation Committee (HTAC) has been constituted by the Director, IIA (Chairman, HTAC), with A.V. Raveendran (secretary), M. Parthasarathy, R. Vasundhara, G.C. Anupama, D.K. Sahu, D. Angchuk and T.P. Prabhu. HTAC invites observing proposals from astronomers. The instrument available during this cycle will be the Himalayan Faint Object Spectrograph (HFOSC).

Guest observers can operate the telescope and instrument from CREST using the satellite communication link. There are no operators available at present, but the astronomers at CREST and engineers from IAO will introduce the guest observers to the user interfaces for operation and to the procedures for downloading the data during the day. There could be occasional problems at night which can be attended by experts only during the following day. The telescope time can thus be effectively utilized only by observers with experience in using optical/infrared telescopes, and willing to become familiar with the operation of the telescope and instrument. The HCT has key programmes on targets of opportunity such as novae, supernovae, afterglows of GRBs, AGN variability, space debris and near-earth asteroids. A part of the allotted telescope time may be used by the IAO team for such observations. The guest observers are welcome to participate and collaborate on such programmes undertaken during the time allotted to them.

The current performance of the telescope with no autoguider installed is:

Pointing accuracy: 5 arcsec rms

Tracking accuracy: 1.38 arcsec (mean) over 10 minutes

Image quality: 0.7 arcsec diameter (80% power)

Note that integration times of only 7 to 20 minutes are possible depending on the location of the object in the sky, without the use of an autoguider.

The last date for receiving completed application forms is 31 January 2003 and the information on allotment of time will be communicated to the applicants by 1 March 2003. Further information on the site, telescope and instruments may be obtained at http://www.iiap.ernet.in/iao/iao.html. Proposals and queries may be sent to htac@iiap.ernet.in.

HCT Status HFOSC CREST Application Form Information to Guest Observers

HCT Now Past images (9:00 AM 10:00 AM 11:00AM 12:00 AM 01:00 PM 02:00 PM 03:00 PM 04:00 PM 05:00 PM 06:00 PM)