Asia’s Largest Liquid-Mirror Telescope

• 04 Jun 2022

India has set up a liquid-mirror telescope, the country's first and the largest in Asia.

• It is located at an altitude of 2,450 metres at the Devasthal Observatory campus of Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India in Nainital district, Uttarakhand.
• It is built by astronomers from India, Belgium and Canada.
• The Indian Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) will help to keep a watch on the skies for transient objects like debris and asteroids falling from space.
• The instrument employs a 4-meter-diameter rotating mirror made up of a thin film of liquid mercury to collect and focus light.