Sampurnanand Optical Telescope

About the telescope-

• The 104-cm Sampurnanand Telescope, situated at Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences(ARIES), Manora Peak in Nainital is one of the the main observing facilities in optical domain.
• ARIES is functional under the Department of Science and Technology. 
• It was installed in 1972 by Carl Zeiss, Germany at the then UP State Observatory (UPSO).
• The telescope gets its name after Dr Sampurnanand, educationist and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
• It has been extensively used for optical observations of comets, occultation by planets and asteroids, star-forming regions and star clusters, variable stars, transients, active galactic nuclei, etc. 
• With improved computational support, Sampurnanand today generates about 50 to 100 Gigabytes (GB) of data per night of observations. 
• Except during the monsoon season when they are safely parked, all telescopes owned by ARIES are operational around the year. 
• This pristine site enjoys 200 days of clear sky viewing in a calendar year.

Breakthrough science results-

• Some of the breakthrough science results contributed by the telescope include the discovery of new rings around Saturn and the rings of Uranus. 
• The instrumentation and science capabilities of ST have paved the way for setting up National and International facilities by ARIES, such as the 3.6m DOT and the 4 meter International Liquid Mirror Telescope at Devasthal.
• First detection of optical afterglows of Gamma-ray-bursts(GRBs) and micro-lensing event from Indian soil.
• The first photoelectric observations of stars from Indian soil were obtained at the institute.
• The discovery of quakes in a half dozen of stars under ‘The Nainital-Cape Survey’, the one of the longest and unique ground based surveys initiated jointly at the northern and southern hemispheres.