MSV-2035 Astronomy Document - Inside Design - FINAL - FINAL

Astronomy & Astrophysics 68 can oversee the allocations of observing time on various observing facilities in the country. The efforts of the host institution in setting up, operating and maintaining these facilities needs to be duly recognised, and this can be in the form of host institutes retaining a good percentage of the telescope time for themselves and releasing the remaining fraction to the national pool. Astronomers from the host institutes should be eligible for competing for the national time too. The constitution and terms of reference for this national TAC can be decided by a joint committee of the institutes hosting different observing facilities. Common Pool of Technical Resources: At present each observing facility has its own technical staff to run and maintain the telescopes and associated instruments. It is difficult to keep a large pool of well trained engineers and technical people as they find good opportunities with better salaries in the industries. It will be good to have a centralised repository of technical staff with expertise to attend to specific issues for various telescopes.As an example, coating of all the primarymirrors can be carried out by a single team. In order for such an arrangement to work it is important to have good coordination between different observatories. Unified Database: It is now well documented that the scientific outputs from facilities like HST, SDSS, and those at ESO have seen a manifold increase from the usage of archival data. In particular, availability of raw data and pipeline data reduction tools that will produce uniform quality processed data have played a major role. Uniform format data from all the facilities is highly desirable for an efficient use of multi-facility data. Therefore, it is recommended to have a centralised data archive facility, managing data taken fromvarious astronomical facilities in the country.Aunified search engine to search the multi- wavelength database for a given target should also developed. Multi-wavelength Multi-messenger Networks: Astronomy of transients of various kinds will be an important area in the coming decade. In particular, due to its geographical advantages, Indian observatories will play an important role in monitoring and locating some of the important and interesting transients. It is nowwell demonstrated that being part of international network equipped with necessary tools to respond to transient triggers quickly is absolutely essential. Therefore it is important to consider (i) forming a network of various existing Indian facilities (in ground as well as space covering multi-wavelength) and (ii) being connected to international networks. It is also recommended to have spectroscopic facilities (in 4 to 10-meter class telescopes) to be able to classify some of interesting transients that are bright when visible to our observatories. AConsortium of Observatories: Countries like the USA (NOAO, NRAO), Japan (NAOJ) and China (NAOC) have an umbrella organisation that operates a set of observatories, enabling the national community to have access to the best facilities. In India, at present, the observing facilities are operated by individual institutes that set up the facility. Although, in general, these facilities are open to the entire national community, a centralised structure will allow implementation of the suggestions above in an efficient manner. In future, the use of megascience facilities, both national and international requires a national level coordination. The setting up of a consortium leading to a virtual national optical • • • • MEGA SCIENCE VISION-2035