 |
The
Vainu Bappu Observatory of the Indian Institute of
Astrophysics traces its origin back to the year 1786
when William Petrie set up his private observatory
at his garden house at Egmore, Madras, which eventually
came to be known as the Madras Observatory. Later
it was moved over to Kodaikanal and functioned there
as the Kodaikanal Observatory since 1899. |
M.K. Vainu Bappu who took over as the Director of the
Kodaikanal Observatory in 1960, found a sleepy little hamlet
called Kavalur in the Javadu Hills as a suitable site for
establishing optical telescopes for observing the celestial
objects. This came to be known as Kavalur Observatory.
Later on, autonomy was obtained and the Head Quarters moved
over to Bangalore with the new name as the Indian Institute
of Astrophysics.
Kavalur observatory is located in Kavalur
in the Javadu Hills in Alangayam, Vellore District. The
Kavalur Observatory
is located in a 100 acre forest land in Tamil Nadu, which
is strewn with a variety of greenery of tropical region
besides a number of medicinal plants with an occasional
appearance of some wild life like deer, snakes and scorpions.
Several varieties of birds have also been spotted in the
campus. The observatory is at an altitude of 725m above
mean sea level (longitude 78° 49.6' E ; latitude 12° 34.6'
N). Apart from being reasonably away from city lights and
industrial areas, the location has been chosen in order
to be closer to the earth's equator for covering both northern
and southern hemispheres with equal ease. In addition,
its longitudinal position is such that it is the only major
astronomical facility between Australia and South Africa
for observing the southern objects.