Prof S. Ananthakrishnan (Prof(H) & Observatory Director, GMRT, India)

The Making of GMRT - Prof S. Ananthakrishnan Colloquium

ATNF Marsfield Lecture Theatre

Abstract

The Giant Metrewave Radio telescope (GMRT) (lat: 19 deg 6 min. N,
long: 74 deg 3 min E), which has been built by the
National Centre for Radio Astrophysics of the
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, is located in western India.
It operates in 8 different frequency bands in the range 120 to 1430 MHz.
There are two feeds that can operate in the OH band for VLBI observations.
GMRT consists of 30 fully steerable parabolic dishes, each of 45 m. diameter
located in an approximately `Y' configuration over an area covered by
a 25 km diameter circle. It is, currently, the largest synthesis
interferometer antenna system in the world at long wavelengths.
Since GMRT provides angular resolution at the few seconds of arc level
at decimetre wavelengths, it is being used for a variety of
astrophysical studies.
The facility is open for scientific use by astronomers from
all parts of the world, on the basis of submitting proposals to the
Gmrt Time Allocation Committee (GTAC). The fourth GTAC cycle of
observations starts from the end of June, 2003.

Construction of GMRT in India has been an exciting venture for a
large team of engineers and scientists. We will give a brief description
of the `making of GMRT'. We will also summarise many of the recent
scientific results obtained from it.