Here is the great news for the people who take interest in astronomy, always curious to know what is up in the night sky as Uttarakhand is going to have a new Observatory in Bhimtal. It will be a wonderful experience for people to experience celestial magic while enjoying the mesmerizing beauty of nature amidst towering mountains.

Starscapes, India’s only chain of observatories, has announced that a new observatory is going to be started in Bhimtal, Uttarakhand.

In India, we have a planetarium in most cities where people, especially children can enjoy it, but the planetarium shows the recording of the night sky. In some colleges and research centers, observations are done largely in their observatories but these observations can be done by the students or research scholars, common people can not access these places.

With the opening of observatories, everyone can get to see and know about the mystical facts regarding the movements and appearances of stars. Starscapes was initiated by astronomy enthusiasts Ramashish Ray and Paul Savio in 2015. The present observatory is located three kilometers from Bhimtal and a seven-hour drive from Delhi.

This is Starscape’s second project, earlier, in 2015, the first project in Kausani was launched. Two more projects in Coorg and Ooty have also been initiated and work is expected to be finished very soon.

Activities at the Observatory:

The observatory offers various programs for people of all ages. These programs are related to astronomy, enabling people to understand more about a completely different and unknown world. The Starscapes observatory offers these programs:

• Educational Programs
• Astrology Shows
• 45-minutes Celestial Show
• Astrophotography
• Audio-visual Night shows
• Solar Flares during the sunlight
• Information about constellations and stars

There are regular shows and activities held at the Starscape observatory. The observatory runs special educational programs for school children where they can enhance their knowledge about the stars, galaxies, and many objects in the sky. A forty-five-minute show which is conducted by expert star guides will help people understand stars and constellations, the science of origin and existence.

These celestial objects can be seen by a special telescope. There are some activities run to engage people as building rockets, launching them with hydraulic, chemical, or mechanical power, making cameras and sundials. These activities workshops are pre-scheduled and take place at the observatory. In an astrophotography workshop, one can learn tricks to capture the perfect scene of the universe in the camera.

During the day, watching sun flares is a unique experience. The telescopes in the observatory are equipped with special filters so that one can stare at the bright orange sun. The audio-visual night shows make one familiar with many unknown things about planets and stars.

If one wants to experience a fun-filled visit to the observatory, he can have star parties where people can enjoy food and drinks under the stars. They can bring their food and drink. After the visit is over, people have a lot to take back home. Having a photo along with loved ones against a starry backdrop will be a memorable thing to take home. People can also buy memorabilia and souvenirs, telescope and binoculars from the Stargate store.