India's eye into the sky to observe celestial objects like stars and pulsars will gain more clarity soon. A large telescope is being set up at Hanle, a small town on the high altitude Ladakh area.

The Rs 50-crore, 21-m, gamma ray telescope is in the final stages of fabrication at the Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL), Hyderabad. “It will be ready in a modular structure by August-September,” said Mr Y.S. Mayya, Chairman and Managing Director of ECIL.

The MACE (Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment) telescope, when ready will be the largest at the highest altitude in the world. The remotely operated, solar back-up telescope will detect bursts of gamma rays from these heavenly objects. The information and visual imagery is useful to astrophysicists to understand the birth, origin and processes of the stars, pulsars and the universe.

The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai is setting up this unique facility. It will enable the study of high energy cosmic gamma ray sources in the unexplored range of 20 to 100 GeV and beyond. The telescope will supplement the worldwide efforts to open up this new window to the observable universe.

The telescope will be set up on the campus of Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO) at Hanle. The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore is already operating the Himalayan Chandra Optical telescope (close to the proposed MACE site). A seven-element wavefront sampling gamma-ray telescope HAGAR (High Altitude Gamma Ray Telescope) has also been set up there jointly by IIA & TIFR.

The ECIL has already fabricated the structure, which will contain 356 square mirror panels of one-metre size and also a camera, weighing more than 1.25 tonnes made by the BARC scientists, Mr Mayya told Business Line today.

It is proposed to operate the MACE and HAGAR telescopes in a coordinated manner to improve their sensitivity. The close proximity of the telescopes will help in coordinated multi-wavelength studies of the cosmos.

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