PASIPHAE – A Sky Surveying Project

The Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in India is developing the Wide Area Linear Optical Polarimeter (WALOP). WALOP is a critical component of the PASIPHAE Project. The Polar-Areas Stellar-Imaging in Polarisation High-Accuracy Experiment (PASIPHAE) is a collaborative international sky surveying project.

It is an Opto polarimetric survey with the goal of measuring the linear polarisation of millions of stars.

The survey will use 2 high-tech optical polarimeters to simultaneously observe the southern and northern sky.

The survey will be carried out simultaneously from the South African Astronomical Observatory in Sutherland, South Africa, in the southern hemisphere, and the Skinakas Observatory in Crete, Greece, in the north.