2004 ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS - Indian Academy of Sciences

CHAPTER 9
to meet this additional cost from their own
budget. Therefore, the suggestion is that the
National Facilities should be given additional
funding by, say, the Department of Science
and Technology which will be specifically
earmarked for this purpose. In the long run
such an arrangement will result in better
utilization of our facilities, particularly by the
university sector.
Going one step further, the committee would
like to suggest that such a support should be
given even for observing with international
facilities in those cases where the presence of
the astronomer is mandatory. Usually, it is
enough for one of the astronomers on the
proposal to be present. If there are foreign
collaborators then it is often possible to arrange
for them to be present. Sometimes it is
unavoidable for the Indian astronomer to be
present. In such instances, the concerned
astronomer should be able to approach the DST
for travel grants.
A rough estimate suggests that a budget of
about Rs. 15 lakhs a year would be sufficient to
take care of both domestic as well as
international travel. To enable one to view this
in proper perspective it may be mentioned that
the sum mentioned above is the “effective”
cost of operating the GMRT for five days!
9. Focused R&D efforts
This is certainly the Golden Age of astronomy.
Unprecedented progress has been made
during the last decade or so in all branches of
astronomy. Admittedly, the large telescopes
that are now available have played a key role.
Perhaps a more important factor has been the
spectacular progress in the technology of
detectors. We in India have neglected research
and development work in this area. Certain
areas, like Gallium Arsenide technology and
mesoscopic devices, require such huge
investments that one cannot contemplate any
significant R&D effort for astronomy alone. But
there are other areas in which sustained efforts
will bring rich rewards. A few of them are
recommended below.
• Speckle Interferometry
As already remarked, this is an area where
there is considerable expertise in India,
although not necessarily in the astronomical
community. One should seed research in this
area at many places, including the IITs. The
optics groups at IIT Madras and IIT Delhi, for
example, have considerable interest and
expertise in modern optics. Optical and
infrared astronomers will greatly benefit by
closely interacting with such groups. The
added advantage is that one can also avail of
the high level engineering help that will be
available at the IITs.
Speckle interferometry is in great vogue at
present. If one is able to develop a state of
the art speckle camera, for example, one
may use it to gain access to the world’s
largest telescopes such as the KECK or the
VLT through a collaborative programme.
• Active and Adaptive Optics
For more than a decade now, most of the
major optical telescopes in the world have
been using various techniques of active
optics to correct for the distortions
introduced in the incident wavefront by the
earth’s atmosphere. A great deal of effort has
gone into both conceptual questions, as well
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