An added fervour to the consecration ceremony of Ram temple in Ayodhya on January 22 for Udupi residents is that the telescope developed by a Udupi resident is among the devices used by the Centre for surveillance of people taking part in the ceremony.
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The Central government has taken 25 telescopes developed by Raghunath Manohar, Deputy Engineer, Advanced Material Research Laboratory, Manipal Institute of Technology. These telescopes have been procured from Mr. Manohar’s firm Fieldking Optics in Parkala in Udupi district.
It was in 2017 that Mr. Manohar received the patent from the Indian Patent Office for the 6 ft long telescope that has a wide field of view and provided an upright image for any range, even exceeding 10 km.
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This telescope has nine lenses, which form the erecting lens system using nine biconvex lenses of the same focal length and diameter 10 cm and 50 mm, respectively. The optical system in the apparatus has eight PVC tubes of the required size. These are slid into a slightly larger PVC container pipe having a collar at one end with a hole at the centre to view the image. The housing tube has external screw threads cut on it to help focus and see distant objects clearly. The container tube is the erecting eyepiece-cum-compound microscope.
To use this as a telescope, another bigger tube has been used as an objective lens with a larger diameter and focal length of 110 mm and 210 cm. This objective tube is fixed to the container tube housing the 9 lenses erecting lenses system. Thus, it functioned as a telescope, Mr. Manohar said.
Mr. Manohar said the new three-foot-long telescope, which will be used in Ayodhya, has advanced features, including digital projection of images. Unlike the earlier version, the new version enables the use of commercially available eyepieces. “Representatives of our firm recently gave a demonstration of the working of the new telescope, following which order for 25 telescopes was placed,” he said. Mr. Manohar said the Central government has placed order for 50 new telescopes that are water proof.
Mr. Manohar said his new telescope was used to conduct shows for children in select places in Parkala and Udupi during solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, and other celestial events. He has also given his telescope free of cost to a few schools in the state. Some schools have also purchased the new telescope for use in astronomy shows, he said.
