As a first in the country, a Dark Sky Reserve tag will soon be given to Hanle in Ladakh, a village about 4200 meters above sea level in the Himalayas. “The Dark Sky Reserve is a space protected from lights to preserve the pristine night skies,” says Obuli Chandran, a science educator from the city, adding that it is similar to the status given to places such as tiger reserves, protected spaces for preserving the forest.
Obuli Chandran, along with Ganesh Raja M and G Aishwarya, a three-member team of amateur astronomers from Coimbatore, are taking part in the first stargazing trip to the magical Hanle Dark Sky Reserve (HDSR) from September 23 to September 28. The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) and Bangalore Astronomical Society (BAS) are jointly organising the trip led by Dorje Angchuk of IIA, and Keerthi Kiran, Vishwanath SK, and Sudhash Natarajan of BAS. They are carrying an eight-inch, 10-inch and 12-inch Dobsonian telescopes, famously known as the light buckets, along with several binoculars to scan the skies.
Hanle, located in a rain shadow region, hardly receives any rainfall and has clear skies almost two-thirds of a year. It is a high altitude dry cold desert. This is also why Indian Institute of Astrophysics has set up its telescopes, like the Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT) among others, up there. The HCT is located in one of the highest astronomical observatories in the world.
