Kodaikanal Solar Observatory

Kodaikanal Solar Observatory

Kodaikanal Solar Observatory
Organization	Indian Institute of Astrophysics
Location	Kodaikanal, India
Coordinates	10°13′56″N 77°27′53″E / 10.23222°N 77.46472°E / 10.23222; 77.46472
Altitude	2,343 meters (7,687 ft)
Website	http://www.iiap.res.in/centers/kodai
Telescopes
Coelostat 60 cm reflector Grubb-Parsons 20 cm refractor
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The Kodaikanal Solar Observatory is a solar observatory owned and operated by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics. It is on the southern tip of the Palni Hills 4 km from Kodaikanal town, Dindigul district, Tamil Nadu state, South India.

The Evershed effect was first detected at this observatory in January 1909. Solar data collected by the lab is the oldest continuous series of its kind in India. Precise observations of the equatorial electrojet are made here due to the unique geography of Kodaikanal.

Ionospheric soundings, geomagnetic, F region vertical drift and surface observations are made here regularly. Summaries of the data obtained are sent to national (IMD) and global (WMO, GAW) data centers.

They have a full-time staff of two scientists and nineteen technicians.

As early as 1881, Mr. Blanford, then Meteorological Reporter to the government of India, recommended "the improvement of the work of solar observations in order to obtain accurate measures of the sun’s heating power at the earth’s surface and its periodic variations". In May 1882, the government astronomer at Madras, Norman Robert Pogson, proposed the need for photography and spectrography of the sun and the stars using a twenty-inch telescope, which could be at a hill station in South India.

On July 20, 1893 following a famine in Madras Presidency, which underscored the need for a study of the sun to better understand monsoon patterns, a meeting of the U.K. Secretary of State, Indian Observatories Committee, chaired by Lord Kelvin, decided to establish a solar physics observatory at Kodaikanal, based on its southern, dust free, high altitude location. Michie Smith was selected to be superintendent. Starting in 1895 there was a rapid transfer of work and equipment from the Madras Observatory to Kodaikanal and the observatory was founded on April 1, 1899.