Ooty Radio Telescope, Radio telescope in Muthorai, India
The Ooty Radio Telescope is a 530-metre-long, 30-metre-tall cylindrical parabolic antenna at Muthorai near Ooty, Tamil Nadu. Its reflecting surface is 1,100 parallel stainless-steel wires held on 24 steerable parabolic frames, and it stands on a natural 11° slope matching the site's latitude. It operates at 326.5 MHz and is part of the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.
The telescope was conceived in the early 1960s and constructed in the years following, becoming operational in the early 1970s. This project was part of India's expansion of radio astronomy research capabilities.
The telescope's name comes from Ooty, the hill town near its site in Muthorai village. Its long-term lunar occultation programme measured the angular structure of several hundred distant radio galaxies and quasars, and that database gave independent evidence against the steady state theory and supported the Big Bang model.
Access to the facility requires advance permission, and visitors should know the location is mountainous and sits at high elevation. It helps to check opening times and road conditions ahead of time before making the trip.
The installation uses thousands of parallel steel wires as its reflecting surface, all held in place by movable support frames. This unusual design allows it to catch radio signals from different points across the sky.
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