18_PRL ka Amrut Vyakhyaan, 01.12.2021, Prof. Paul Ho

Title: The Development of the East Asian Observatory

Abstract: The East Asian Observatory (EAO) was established in 2015 in order to promote the collaboration and the construction of large scale facilities in the East Asian regions. Our first project was to take over the operations of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on Maunuakea in Hawaii. After seven years of very successful operations, we have a robust community of astronomers in the East Asian region which are collaborating on a variety of projects. While the original partners included the key observatories in Japan, China, Korea, and Taiwan, we now have a new partner from Thailand, while Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia are in Observer status. In this talk, I will report on the latest status of the EAO, and we invite India to join in our collaborations.