Recently install 3.6m Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) and forthcoming Thirty Meter Telescope(TMT) would not be enough to cater the need of growing Indian astronomical community. Access to 10-12m size optical-NIR telescope equipped with state of the art back-end instruments can bridge the gap between DOT and TMT. A telescope of this size is only possible when primary mirror is made of smaller mirror segments. In order to get acquainted with segmented mirror telescope technology, in IIA we have initiated a project to develop a small prototype telescope made of seven spherical mirror segments (PSMT). I will present the progress made in opto-mechanical design as well development of other sub-systems required for the PSMT. The prototyping effort is one step toward realization of a large telescope in India and it is expected to be completed in 2 years period.
Dr. Padmakar is a Associate Professor at IIA, Bangalore and involved in astronomical instrumentation.