KODAIKANAL SOLAR OBSERVATORY

For well over a century, the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory (KoSO) has been observing the Sun, capturing images of sunspots, and recording changes in its behaviour.
KoSO is owned and operated by Indian Institute of Astrophysics.
It is one of the world’s oldest observatories studying the Sun.
The idea was first proposed by the astronomer Norman Pogson, who was appointed Government Astronomer of the Madras Observatory in 1861.
The Madras Observatory was set up as the private effort of an official of the British East India Company in 1786, and came to be managed subsequently by the company.
The decision to establish a solar observatory was finally taken in 1893, and Kodaikanal in present-day Tamil Nadu was chosen for its high altitude and dust-free environment.
The Solar Physics Observatory opened on April 1, 1899, and was later named KoSO.
This 16-inch Newtonian (later Cassegrain) mobile telescope remained India’s largest from 1888 to 1968.
Imported from Dublin, Ireland, it was first established at the Maharaja Takhtasinghji Observatory in Poona (now Pune) around 1888.
But after the observatory in Pune was shut, it was sent to KoSO in 1912.
It is no longer in use today.

Recent changes:

Between 1904 and 2017, all solar observations were traced on to photographic films and plates.
A new telescope mounted with charged-coupled device (CCD) camera has taken over and, since 2017, continued to observe the Sun.
The task of digitisation of the records was initiated in 1984.
In 2018, digitised solar observations for the period 1921-2011 were made available to the scientific community.
With the addition of raw and calibrated data for the period of 1904 to 2017, the digitisation process is nearly complete.
The Sun is the primary source of energy and the reason for the existence of most life on Earth.
Even minor changes on the solar surface or its periphery can significantly affect the Earth’s atmosphere and influence the space weather.
For instance, powerful solar storms, solar flares, are potentially harmful for satellite-based operations, power grids, and navigational networks.
Historical data on the Sun help solar physicists understand and predict its future.