VISMAYA: History & Philosophy of Physics
Below are ‘locations of some of the optical and infrared observatories marked on the Indian map’.
from: Narendranath, Shyama, Shashikiran Ganesh, Dipen Sahu, et al. 2025. “Solar System Research Prospects for the Decade and Beyond.” Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy 46 (2): 34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12036-025-10060-0.
Recently, I came across an interview with Tony Tyson, one of the main scientists related to the Rubin telescope. He says:
“We can do better than this. We can build a larger telescope by making larger mosaics of larger CCDs.”
— Tony Tyson
On a day when India lost a test match, the first sentence rings loud…anyway, the topic of this post is a fascinating development happening in observational cosmology.
Tony’s suggestion above is a great, ambitious way to explore the Universe….by building effective observational tools that can image and comprehend the observable…and perhaps unobservable too…
For students: Observational cosmology is a great place to explore cutting-edge science: physics (experiments + theory), maths, engineering & computation…all come together..
Check out the interview of Tony Tyson…one of the brains behind the cameras of Rubin Observatory…plenty to learn…
Just like test cricket, observational cosmology needs patience…perhaps a good lesson for life too…