About Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT):
- It is a 2 meter optical-infrared telescope named after Nobel laureate Subramaniam Chandrasekhar.
- It is located at the Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO) in Hanle near Leh in Ladakh.
- The cloudless skies and low atmospheric water vapour make it one of the best sites in the world for optical, infrared, sub-millimetre, and millimetre wavelengths.
- The telescope is remotely operated using a dedicated satellite communication link from the Centre for Research & Education in Science & Technology (CREST), Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Hosakote, about 35 km northeast of Bangalore.
- Currently, the HCT hosts HFOSC (a spectrograph and camera in the optical), uTIRSPEC (a near-infrared spectrometer and imager), and HESP (a high-resolution Echelle spectrograph).
- HCT is used by astronomers from across India, to study objects as varied as planets and asteroids, to stars and galaxies.
- Some research highlights have been spectroscopy of comets, study of atmospheres of exo-planets, and participation in the discovery of the famous Trappist 1b exoplanet in the field of planetary science.
