Telescopes are installed in laminar airflow regions and higher altitudes for better seeing, covered by domes. As the domes are the nearest structures to the telescope, they tend to obstruct the free movement of air and create a local air trap. They also form a temperature difference, in and out of the premises, causing vapourisation in local seeing atmosphere above the primary mirror. Local vapourisation reflects light rays and degrades the image quality. The project is aimed at quantifying these effects of dome seeing and local atmospheric disturbances on the image formation and to provide engineering suggestions for improving the same. NX Unigraphics is used for the mechanical designing and ANSYS CFD is used for the seeing effect analyses and to create the simulation of the local wind environment.
Sanchita has completed her M.Tech in Mechanical Engineering under TEQIP scholarship from University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Maharshi Dayanand University, Haryana. She did a three-month project work at ARIES and is presenting her report.