Scientific potential of the Indo-Belgian 3.6-m DOT in the field of Galactic Astronomy

Abstract

India and Belgium have jointly established two 4 meter class optical telescopes at Devasthal located in Nainital, India. After successful installation of the 3.6-m modern new technology Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) in 2015, it was technically activated by premiers of both countries from Brussels on March 30, 2016. Since then, the 3.6-m DOT has been used for both optical and near-Infrared (NIR) observations for a number of research proposals. The best angular resolution achieved is 0. 4 indicating that the optics of the 3.6-m DOT is good and capable of providing images of the celestial bodies with sub-arc-second resolution. The observations provide proof that the care taken in the construction of the telescope dome building has paid a rich dividend as their thermal mass is so low that it has not degraded the natural atmospheric seeing at Devasthal measured about two decades ago during 1997 to 1999 using differential image motion monitor.A few preliminary scientific results obtained from recent observations are presented along with performance and global potential of the 3.6-m DOT in the field of galactic astronomy. The 3.6-m DOT is capable of providing internationally competitive science once high resolution spectrograph and other planned modern back-end instruments become operational. Geographical location of the observatory has global importance for the time domain and multi-wavelength astrophysical studies.

The 3.6 meter Devasthal Optical Telescope: From inception to realisation

“…6 Highlights of recent results from the 3.6m DOT After successful installation and performance verification, the technical activation of the 3.6-m DOT was done jointly by both Indian and Belgian premiers on March 30, 2016 from Brussels, Belgium. Scientific potential and capabilities of the telescope are published elsewhere 1,41,42 . Observing proposals from the users are submitted online twice in a year for both observing cycles namely Cycle-A (February to May) and Cycle-B (October to January).…”