International Liquid Mirror Telescope

March 23, 2023

Asia’s largest ILMT was recently inaugurated at Devasthal in Uttarakhand.
Other telescope facility at Devasthal
- Devasthal Optical Telescope and Devasthal Fast Optical Telescope.
It is owned by Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES).
ILMT is the first liquid mirror telescope designed exclusively for astronomical observations and is the first optical survey telescope in India.
The Devasthal observatory is equipped with the largest aperture telescope available in India that will use Big Data and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) algorithms to classify objects in the sky.
LMTs are devices that consist a mirror-made with a reflective liquid, essentially mercury.
- However, other liquids like, low-melting alloys of gallium, are also used.
LMTs are stationary telescopes that image a strip of sky which is at the zenith.
It can capture all possible celestial objects — from stars, galaxies, supernovae explosions, asteroids to space debris.