Small/automated telescopes and backend instrumentation for teaching purpose

Abstract

In the past decade, with the inception of IUCAA and other similar efforts from Universities and Institutes, several MSc teaching courses at Universities now offer Astronomy & Astrophysics as a special paper along with a set of laboratory experiments using telescopes and various back-end instruments. This paper highlights the small and/or automated photoelectric telescopes (APTs) that could be made or procured for the purpose of teaching at University level and the experiments that could be carried out with this kind of set up. At IUCAA's instrumentation laboratory, over the past few years, APTs have been fabricated along with the required light weight back-end instrumentations and these are discussed.