The Metre Wavelength Sky: Celebrating 50 years of Radio Astronomy at TIFR & 10 years of GMRT

An international conference "The Metre Wavelength Sky: Celebrating 50 years of Radio Astronomy at TIFR and 10 years of GMRT” is being organized to mark 50 years of radio astronomy research at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), as well as 10 years of operation of the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) as an international observatory. It is to be held at NCRA-TIFR, Pune, from December 9-13, 2013.

The main aim of the conference is to bring together leading researchers in a variety of fields, covering all areas of research at low radio frequencies. The GMRT was the first of a new generation of low frequency radio telescopes that have led to a renaissance in the field over the last few years.  Although part of the aim of the conference is to look back at the achievements of the group over last 50 years, the principal emphasis will  be on recent results and new developments in instrumentation.  In addition, a special celebratory session marking the historical developments at NCRA-TIFR, will be held at the GMRT observatory on December 13, 2013, the last day of the conference.

Highlights of the conference: The conference has received an extremely positive response from the international community. Over 200 radio astronomers from all over the world have registered for the conference, and all leading radio astronomy groups  will be represented.  There is also a special session focused on new and upcoming radio facilities, including the upgraded GMRT and  the ASKAP and MEERKAT telescopes in Australia and South Africa respectively. Prof. Mustansir Barma, Director, TIFR, will open the conference.  The inaugural talk will be given by Prof.  Ron Ekers, former President of the International Astronomical Union, on the growth of radio astronomy. There will be a public lecture on the SKA by the SKA Director-General Prof. Philip Diamond, at 6:30 pm on Monday, December 9, 2013.

Growth of Radio Astronomy in TIFR:- Kalyan to Khodad, via Ooty:  The radio astronomy group at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) was started in 1963 by Govind Swarup.  The first major facility that the group set up (in 1965) was the Kalyan Radio Telescope, consisting of 32 parabolic dishes of 1.8 m diameter.  Amongst its important discoveries was the detection of considerable limb-brightening in the quiet Sun.  The Kalyan telescope was disbanded in 1968 as the group got involved in the more ambitious Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT) project.  Prof. Govind Swarup proposed the idea of a large steerable cylindrical telescope that would exploit the lunar occultation method to measure the angular structure of radio sources, which was important to distinguish between the Big Bang model and the steady state model of the Universe. Thus the ORT was conceived, and completion of this major facility in 1970 placed India on the world map of radio astronomy. 

Soon after the commissioning of the ORT, the group built the Ooty Synthesis Radio Telescope (OSRT), which consisted of the ORT and 8 other smaller antennas in an array spread over 4 km. This was an important step towards the next big project by the group: the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), which was motivated by the scope for new explorations at metre wavelengths, such as the study of redshifted 21 cm neutral hydrogen emission, pulsars, and the diffuse radio emission of celestial sources.  The GMRT, built during the 1990s and available to the international community since 2002, has been one of the most challenging experimental programmes in basic sciences undertaken by Indian scientists and engineers in the recent past.

Today, NCRA is a premier research institute covering several fascinating facets of radio astrophysics and related topics, as well as a centre for development of advanced techniques for radio astronomy, and the home to 2 major facilities : the ORT and the GMRT.

Celebration of 50 yrs of Radio Astronomy at TIFR and 10 yrs of GMRT: On the fifth day of the conference, i.e, on December 13, 2013, a celebratory programme is arranged at GMRT, Khodad.  Dr. Anil Kakodkar, former Secretary, Dept. of Atomic Energy will be the chief guest. Key speakers include Prof. Miller Goss, former Director of Very Large Array, USA, Prof. Govind Swarup, father of Radio Astronomy in India, Prof. S. Bhattacharya, former Director of TIFR, Mumbai and many other eminent scientists. Afternoon session is dedicated to technical talks by engineers at GMRT on current status of GMRT and future plans.

Conference website: http://mwsky.ncra.tifr.res.in/mwsky/

Contact: 

Dr. Ishwara Chandra C.H.  (Ph: 9403136630)

Shri. J. K. Solanki  (Ph: 9890447888)

Shri. Anil Raut  (Ph: 8605525945)