The Indian Astronomical Observatory's 2-m aperture Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT) is the world's highest optical-infrared telescope situated at an altitude of 4500 m (15000 ft) above sea level in Hanle, Ladakh, Indian Himalayas. It is powered fully by solar photovoltaic arrays and is operated remotely from its control center at Bangalore, India.

First light obtained on September 26, 2000. Telescope Released for Science Observations Beginning May, 2003.
 

Photo: Himalayan Chandra Telescope.

HCT is a leg of Around the World in 80 Telescopes tour: Click to play; click  (lower right) to view video full screen Next stop: NRAO GBT (previous stop: NRAO VLA)

A 2-m aperture optical-infrared telescope, the Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT) manufactured by the EOS Technologies Inc., Tuscon, Arizona, USA is installed at the Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO). The telescope is remotely operated from the Centre for Research and Education in Science and Technology (CREST), Hosakote, via a dedicated satellite link.

The telescope is equipped with 3 science instruments which are mounted on an instrument mount cube at the cassegrain focus of the telescope. The instrument mount cube has four side ports and an on-axis port, which makes all three instruments available mounted on the telescope. The instruments currently available are the Himalaya Faint Object Spectrograph (HFOSC), the near-IR imager, and the optical CCD imager.

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