Ooty Radio Telescope

The Ooty Radio Telescope is located in Muthorai near Ootacamund (Ooty), south India. It is part of the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) of the well known Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) which is funded by the Government of India through the Department of atomic energy. The Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT) is a 530m long and 30m wide Cylindrical Paraboloid telescope. It operates at a frequency of 326.5 MHz with a maximum bandwidth of 15 MHz at the front-end.DesignThe Ooty Radio telescope has been designed and fabricated with domestic Indian technological resources. The ORT was completed in 1970 and continues to be one of the most sensitive radio telescopes in the world.Observations made using this telescope have led to important discoveries and to explain various phenomena occurring in our solar system and in other celestial bodies.The reflecting surface of the telescope is made of 1100 thin stainless-steel wires running parallel to each other for the entire length of the cylinder and supported on 24 steerable parabolic frames.An array of 1056 half-wave dipoles in front of a 90 degrees corner reflector forms the primary feed of the telescope. It has an angular resolution of 2.3deg x 5.5sec(dec)'.HistoryThe structure of the radio telescope was designed in July 1963. Muthorai village near Ooty was selected as the suitable location and the construction work began in 1965. The telescope was completed in 1969. Normal post commissioning and calibration use began in 1971.