Some new initiatives in Optical Astronomy at UPSO, Naini Tal

Abstract

The Uttar Pradesh State Observatory was established in 1954. Research and developmental activities at the Observatory have increasingly covered selected areas of astronomy and astrophysics. The Observatory is well known for its precise observations in the studies related to comets, ring formation in the planets, variabilities in stars, star clusters, stellar populations and photometry of galaxies. It has photographed about forty six thousand transits of artificial earth satellites during 1958 to 1975 and was one of the 12 centres identified by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, USA, all over the globe but the only centre in India for this purpose. Optical follow-up observations of radio and spaceborne astronomical sources as well as gravitational microlensing and milli-magnitude variations in the rapidly oscillating peculiar A type stars have been started recently. The Observatory is thus one of the important research centres in India from where astronomers are making useful research contributions about the Universe and also opening up a number of new possibilities for study of exciting new astrophysics.