ARIES 130-cm Devasthal Fast Optical Telescope — Operation and Outcome

Abstract

This paper studies about the 130-cm Devasthal Fast Optical Telescope (DFOT) at Devasthal, India that has been in operation for more than 10 years and is the main workhorse for the photometric observations for a wide range of scientific programs carried out at ARIES, Nainital. Having a 2 k * 2 k pixel imager mounted on the prime focus of the telescope, DFOT provides a field of view of about 18 * 18 arcmin2 in the sky. Another frame transfer CCD imager of 512 * 512 pixel size enables monitoring transient sources with millisecond temporal resolution. DFOT is equipped with a filter assembly having eight filters, an auto-guider, an All Sky Camera, and GPS-enabled weather monitoring system to support the observations in the most optimum way. The telescope is capable of producing sub-milimag photometric stability which has allowed us to detect many small-scale photometric variations.