An institute reborn

The Nainital Observatory at Manora Park. - PICTURES BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

The reincarnation of State Observatory, Nainital, as an autonomous institute, ARIES, augurs well for the overall development of astronomy in India.

A NEW national institute of astronomy is born under the zodiacal sign of Aries. Well, not quite. The 50-year-old, historical Uttar Pradesh State Observatory (UPSO) at Nainital, an institute specialising in optical astronomy, underwent an important metamorphosis on March 22. And, for the observatory staff and authorities, the timing of its rebirth is of some significance. No astrological mumbo-jumbo here. Fifty years ago - before it moved to Nainital from the dust and haze of the plains in 1961 - UPSO was founded at Varanasi on April 20, 1954, at the initiative of Dr. Sampurnanand, the then Education Minister and later the Chief Minister of the State, and Prof. A.N. Singh, a Professor of Mathematics at Lucknow University. To signify the sun sign of the month of April, Aries, the observatory in its new avatar will be called ARIES, short for Aryabhata Research Institute of Observational Sciences. The acronym is no doubt highly contrived but equally unusual is the happy coincidence of an institution's golden jubilee also marking the beginning of a new phase that promises a good deal better and brighter times ahead.

On January 7, the Union Cabinet took the decision to convert this State observatory into an autonomous national research institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST) at the Centre. The new institute was registered as a society on March 12 and, according to the government order, the institute and all its assets (movable and immovable) were formally transferred from the Government of Uttaranchal (under whose administrative control it has been functioning as State Observatory, Nainital (SON) since the creation of the new State in November 2000) to the Centre with effect from March 22.

The observatory is equipped in the main with four telescopes - a 32-year-old 104 cm aperture reflector (called Sampurnanand Telescope), a 36-year-old 56-cm reflector, a 43-year-old 52-cm reflector, a 43-year-old 38-cm reflector - and associated instrumentation. It also has a 15-cm reflecting telescope, acquired in 1960, and a 25-cm refracting telescope, with which the observatory began functioning at Sarnath. These are at present used for public outreach activities. Besides, the observatory also has two 15-cm refractors acquired during 1988-92, which enable solar observations. The total assets transferred, which include the 32.38 hectares of land at Manora Peak (altitude 1,951 metres) in Nainital and 4.48 ha of land at the newly identified observation site at Devasthal, about 50 km from Nainital (altitude 2,500 m), have been valued at Rs.10-15 crores, depending on whether the land is regarded as agricultural or not. Of the total 111 employees at the time of its transfer, 40 (mainly non-academic personnel) have opted to stay with the State government. They will be absorbed in other State institutions in due course. Effective April 1, Prof. Ram Sagar, the Director of the erstwhile State Observatory, took charge as the Director of the new institution.

ARIES now has a 12-member governing council headed by Dr. K. Kasturirangan, the former Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation who is currently a member of the Rajya Sabha. The other scientist-members of the council include Prof. V.S. Ramamurthy, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology; Prof. J.V. Narlikar Emeritus Professor, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune; Prof. G. Srinivasan, Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bangalore; Prof. P.C. Agrawal, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai; Prof. Ramanath Cowsik, former Director and now Distinguished Professor, Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore; Dr. S.D. Sinvhal former Director of the State Observatory and Prof. Ram Sagar. The council held its first meeting in New Delhi on April 13.

Though UPSO/SON had the unique distinction of being the only astronomy research institution in the country under a State government, its existence had been far from comfortable and congenial for growth under both governments. The excessive bureaucratic control did not allow the potentially good observatory to be run effectively. Consider the following. Even though the sanctioned staff strength is 140, since 1995, 18 academic/engineering posts have remained vacant and not been filled chiefly because of complex bureaucratic procedures like recruitment through the State Public Service Commission, reservation issues and government-dictated personnel policies that are not conducive to filling academic posts. According to Prof. Ram Sagar, once the observatory's requirement was forwarded to the Ministry, the actual appointment could take as along as four years, often rendering the process meaningless for academic posts. Since 1982 not a single member has gone abroad on institute expenditure. The lack of autonomy under the earlier dispensation was such that under U.P. governance, members were denied permission to attend conferences abroad three times even when the expenditure was being borne by external agencies.

But the most glaring is the observatory's budget over the years. In all the 50 years of its existence, the total budget has been an unbelievably small sum of around Rs.30 crores (about Rs.11 crores plan plus Rs.19 crores non-plan). The situation had become worse under the Uttaranchal government. Last year, apparently the plan allocation (of about Rs.30 lakhs) came with the condition that no money be spent on computers and books! Compare UPSO/SON's present level of annual funding of about Rs.2 crores to Rs.10 crores of a Centrally-funded institute such as the RRI, a relatively small institute. Considering that the observatory has significant observational facilities to operate and maintain, the funding has been grossly inadequate all along.

It is not that the State governments were not interested in supporting science but they were constrained by the limited financial resources at their disposal for funding institutions of research in basic sciences. In fact, when feasible, suitable funding was made available during the 1990s to enable the observatory acquire appropriate focal plane instrumentation like Charge Coupled Device (CCD) cameras and the like required for photometric measurements.

Indeed, as a member of UPSO's advisory board, Prof. Narlikar had tried to impress upon the U.P. government to grant autonomy to the institution and had even formulated appropriate by-laws for effecting the same. However, the U.P. government took no action on that front. In April 1998, he wrote to Union Minister for Science and Technology Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi that under a State government the observatory could not have the financial and functional autonomy necessary for an academic institution that was expected to do world-class research and suggested that the observatory be brought under the Centre's DST. However, the Minister took the view that the Centre would not interfere in the affairs of a State and would initiate such a move only if there was a request from the State government.

While the U.P. government did not take any such step despite the board's urging, within months of its formation the Uttaranchal government, faced with financial constraints, saw merit in Prof. Narlikar's recommendation. In February 2001, it wrote to the Union Ministry of Science and Technology to look into the possibility of bringing the institute under its umbrella. The letter clearly stated the government's inability to commit adequate funds towards the effective running of the observatory. The DST, in turn, constituted a 10-member committee, which included Prof. Narlikar, Prof. Srinivasan and Prof. Cowsik as scientist-members, to study the transfer proposal. The committee unanimously recommended that the observatory be converted into an autonomous institution under the DST. It also wanted the Astronomical Society of India (ASI) to constitute a sub-committee to prepare a Vision Document for the observatory and identify possibilities of integrating the activities of the observatory with other institutes and their activities.

In his remarks to the committee, Prof. Srinivasan, the then President of the ASI, argued against a suggestion that the observatory be merged with a large astronomical institute such as the IIA. He observed that small autonomous institutions were far more preferable to large institutions. He also saw merit in establishing more independent institutions specialising in astronomy. His point was that the new Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) near Pune, the new 2m optical Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT) of the IIA at Hanle in Leh, and the multi-wavelength astronomy satellite Astrosat scheduled to be launched in 2007 required the building up of a larger user community rather than creating more observing facilities. This, he felt, was best done by creating more autonomous research centres with strong links with the universities in the neighbourhood and UPSO/SNO could eminently serve that purpose.

The creation of ARIES is a consequence of the recommendation of this committee. The Cabinet Note explaining its decision said that, in fulfilling its objective of doing research in basic sciences, the State Observatory had been handicapped in its functioning both administratively and financially. The meagre resources at the disposal of the State inhibited the observatory from establishing pro-active linkages with other institutions of the country and it has thus been performing far below its potential.

Interestingly enough, while the original proposal for transfer came from a Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttaranchal, the transfer itself is being effected under a Congress government, which too has endorsed the proposal. Given the distinct history of the observatory, the Uttaranchal administration in fact wishes to maintain its links with the observatory and has offered continued help in running it. The government would particularly like the new institution to continue its public outreach activities like the daily night sky viewing by visitors, which has even become a major tourist attraction. Indeed, Chief Minister N.D. Tiwari even waived the stamp duty (about Rs.1.2 crores) payable to the State government on the assets transferred to the Centre.

Despite the limitations of functioning under a State government, it is to the credit of the observatory that it has been able to do internationally noteworthy research and promote astronomy as an area of research in universities in the neighbourhood. As Prof. D. Narasimha of the TIFR, who has an active research collaboration with the observatory, points out: "Knowing the strong and weak points of the site, which was perhaps chosen more from an easy accessibility point of view than based on a proper survey, and the facility, the observatory has done well to make optimum utilisation of their resources." The principal research interests at the observatory have been in photometric studies of galaxies, stellar populations, stellar variability, stellar energy distribution, star clusters, planetary physics, solar activity and molecular and atomic spectra of the sun. The observatory has so far produced 38 Ph.D. theses and 782 research papers, a large part of which were published in internationally reputed journals.

The strong point of the observatory is its geographical location. The longitude locates in the middle of a wide longitudinal band of about 180 degrees between Canary Islands (about 20 deg. West) and Eastern Australia (about 157 deg East) having reasonably good viewing conditions for a good part of the year (October to April) and astronomical facilities. With its latitude of about 30 deg. North, astronomical objects of both the Northern and Southern hemispheres are accessible from the place. Because of this, even small-aperture, 1 to 2 m-class telescopes located in India can make important contributions to astronomical research, particularly time critical phenomena. For example, time series observation of certain astronomical phenomena like pulsation of white dwarfs require 24-hour observation, which would not be possible (due to day light) from Canary Islands or Australia. Such research activity can be supplemented by observations from India under collaborative programmes.

Even though UPSO/SON is limited by the fact that it has only a 1-m telescope with limited instrumentation, the observatory has been able to identify and pursue research programmes, both in-house and collaborative, that are commensurate with its capabilities. Two significant examples of research testify to this. One is the observatory's contribution when the rings of Uranus were discovered in 1977 and, two, the earliest optical observation of the afterglow of the gamma ray burst (GRB) 000301C in 1999. Indeed, the observation of the optical afterglow of GRBs - which release enormous amount of energy in a very short period of time and whose origin remains a mystery - has since formed an important component of the observatory's activity and several significant contributions have been made in this area.

Besides GRB afterglow monitoring, the observatory has in the last one decade participated in three other important surveys.

The Nainital Indo-French Microlens survey to detect and characterise dark matter in galactic halos. Between 1998 and 2002, 140 days of monitoring the Andromeda galaxy (M31) was done. A new technique called the Pixel Method has been evolved, which uses the CCD camera-based photometric data with the 104m telescope, which has yielded excellent data and a potential dark matter candidate has been identified. This survey is likely to be enlarged in scope over the next five years when the 2m HCT at Leh will be used in conjunction.

The other is the survey of optical microvariability of powerful active galactic nuclei (AGN) where important results have been obtained. The third is the Nainital-Cape A-peculiar (Ap) stars survey in collaboration with the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) and University of Central Lancashire for which a special three-channel photometer has been developed in association with ISRO. Other important studies carried out (mainly using the 104m telescope) relate to star clusters - to trace the evolution of the galaxy and its present dynamic state - and 35 open star clusters have been studied extensively.

In recent years, a new dimension has been added to the observatory's research programmes. This relates to aerosol measurements in the Himalayan region. The observatory already has 40 years of day-night atmospheric extinction data obtained from the monitoring of viewing conditions for the telescope. A Multiwavelength Solar Radiometer (MWR), designed by Space Physics Laboratory (SPL) of ISRO at Thiruvananthapuram has been set up at the observatory for continuous spectral extinction measurements of directly transmitted solar radiation that reaches the ground. Aerosol measurements during day-time have been carried out successfully during January-June 2002. The findings have important implications for weather and climatic studies. Besides envisioning expanded programmes of research in all the key areas of UPSO/SNO's past activities, the ASI Vision Document, has proposed a major programme of high-altitude (around 2 km) aerosol studies in the Central Himalayas using both day and night times as part of ISRO's Geosphere-Biosphere Programme.

In fact, atmospheric science is likely to become an important feature of ARIES in the years to come and aerosol studies will be a part of it. The new name includes the phrase `Observational Sciences' precisely for this reason. As part of the climate studies initiative, ARIES is also likely to be linked to a network of atmospheric radars being envisaged by ISRO, which would be linked to ISRO's Mesosphere, Stratosphere and Troposphere (MST) Radar facility at Gadanki, near Tirupati. According to ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair, the idea is to establish an integrated national climatological laboratory based on this radar network in the near future. Accordingly, an expert committee under the chairmanship of Dr. B.M. Reddy of National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad, has been constituted by the DST to prepare a detailed proposal for establishing a Science and Technology Radar Facility (that will include a LIDAR as well) at Nainital, as part of ARIES. The scientific objective of this facility will be to study convection, tropopause variations, vertical wind velocities and the type of precipitating systems that prevail over the region. The data could be used in atmospheric modelling studies.

Setting the agenda in astronomy, ASI Vision Document says that the new institution can make unique contributions in the studies of galactic and extragalactic variables, optical identification of the sources detected by the GMRT and the upcoming Astrosat, observation of optical transient events such as GRBs and stellar evolution using star clusters. In order to carry out these studies, the document envisages close interaction of ARIES with other national observational facilities such as the GMRT, the 2 m HCT at Hanle and the 2.34 m Vainu Bappu Telescope (VBT) at Kavalur. Specifically, it has been proposed to set up a real-time observing station for the HCT at Nanital just as the IIA operates the telescope remotely from Hoskote near Bangalore. The observatory has already been partnered to carry out ground-based observations for the India-Israel satellite-based astronomy project called TAUVAX. This is due to be launched next year aboard the GSLV.

An important component of UPSO/SNO's activity has been its linkages with universities such as Kumaon University, Garhwal University, G.B. Pant Nagar Agricultural University, Punjabi University, and Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee, particularly for doctoral thesis work of students from these universities. The document envisages expanded collaborative programmes with universities in astronomy, astrophysics and space physics. The objective is that ARIES should be able to play a major role in generating the much-needed highly skilled manpower by implementing appropriate astrophysical research projects.

In order to achieve the goals, the document has pointed out that the observing time in the existing major facility of 104-m telescope, which is being used by Indian institutions and researchers from abroad, is oversubscribed by a factor of nearly three. The enlarged agenda of the future would call for more optical and near-infrared observations for which a new observing facility would be required. But, more pertinently, the control, tracking and other mechanical systems of this telescope of the 1960s are outdated and have begun to give operational problems. The document has recommended the setting up of a 1.5m-class modern telescope at the new site at Devasthal where extensive site survey studies have been done since the 1990s. It has been found to be an excellent site with 200 clear nights of which 80 per cent are good for photometric observations. The studies were done to identify an alternative observational site because, with increasing activity in and around Nainital town, light pollution at Manora Peak was affecting observations.

In fact, in the year 2000, a 3m telescope to be established jointly by the TIFR and the U.P. government at Devasthal almost came to fruition. The project had been cleared by the State government and, under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two, even some funds had been sanctioned to begin the project. However, before the money could be released, the new State of Uttaranchal was formed, which stated its inability to undertake the financial burden - even though it had to meet only half the cost - of a venture of this scale, and the project fell through. The open question now for ARIES is whether such a project will be revived immediately. As regards funding, ARIES has a provisional approved outlay of Rs.12 crores for this year, of which Rs.3.88 crores has been sanctioned in the vote on account budget for the quarter.

"We are terribly excited and we see it as a golden opportunity for the observatory," Prof. Ram Sagar said during this correspondent's visit to the observatory a fortnight ago. "We are looking forward to the Council's decisions," he said. As per the decisions arrived at the first meeting of the council on April 13, the Director of ARIES has been given the go-ahead to improve the basic infrastructure both at Nainital and Devasthal so that the observatory becomes attractive for researchers. As part of the climate studies programme, the council has approved the setting up of a Research Centre and Training Institute in Climate Studies as proposed by the India Meteorological Department (IMD). As regards establishing a new telescope, apparently Kasturirangan has asked the Director to make a focussed proposal for the facility, but indications are that if at all approved, it will be of a large aperture (3-4 m class), but not in the near term.

"Our primary objective is to convert it into a world-class infrastructure and a manpower source and establish ARIES as a good astronomy manpower base," Kasturirangan said. "Astronomers in the country are only a handful and the level of utilisation of the existing new facilities like the GMRT and the HCT is low. Moreover, we have projects like Astrosat coming up, for which we need people. The idea is to create a first rate ambience here to attract students. Additional observational facilities can be thought of later," he added. But some scientists point out the catch-22-like situation here. "Why would a place like Nainital attract youngsters and other scientists if there are no attractive new astronomy projects?"

"It is essential to have a new observational facility in India to make best use of our strategic location," points out Narasimha. "Since our seeing condition is not the best in the world, we should strive to have a moderate facility at an accessible site like Devasthal. For the best scientific results and for bringing Indian astronomers together, the new institution can try to build the new facility indigenously as a collaborative effort," he adds. How the council and the ARIES Director are going to resolve this difficult dilemma remains to be seen. But ARIES has certainly been launched with a lot of hope and promise for Indian astronomy and space sciences.