The four-meter International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) saw the first light recently, gazing out from its vantage on Devasthal, a hill in Uttarakhand.

What is the ILMT?

• The telescope has been built by a collaboration of scientists from Canada, Belgium and India.
• It is located at an altitude of 2,450 metres on the Devasthal Observatory campus of the Aryabhata Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) in Nainital district.
• A large pool of mercury placed in a vessel is spun around so fast that it curves into a parabolic shape. Since mercury is reflective, this shape helps in focusing the reflected light.
• Nearly 50 litres of mercury, weighing close to 700 kilograms, is spun hard to form a paraboloid mirror of just 4 mm thickness and a diameter of about 4 metres.
• A thin sheet of mylar protects the mercury from the wind.
• Once it starts making observations, the telescope will collect gigabytes of data, which will need to be analysed using artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI and ML) tools.

It’s utility

• The telescope will make sky surveys possible and obtain images that can help observe transient phenomena.
• It will help analyse events such as supernovae and record the presence of space debris or meteorites — basically, watch the skies.

What is the first image?

• The first image made by the telescope consisted of several stars and a galaxy, NGC 4274, which is 45 million light years away.
• The telescope, having a primary mirror that is liquid, cannot be turned and pointed in any direction.
• It “stares” at the zenith and watches the sky as the earth rotates, thereby giving a view of different objects.
• This property can be used to scan and survey the sky, and observe transients and moving objects such as meteorites.
• It will work in tandem with the existing 3.6-metre Devasthal Optical Telescope.

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