A view of the Stars and Milkyway infront of the highest Telescope throughout the evening at Hanle in Ladakh on September 30, 2022.
| Photo Credit: R.V. Moorthy/The Hindu
What are the information?
The TIME Magazine has listed Ladakh as one the World’s Greatest Places of 2023 together with Mayurbhanj in Odisha.
The article highlights the rugged fantastic thing about Ladakh’s mountainous terrain and the robust Tibetan-Buddhist tradition and offers a spread of locations to go to together with the Hanle Dark Sky Reserve arrange by the Indian Institute of Astronomy (IIA).
What is the context?
With the launch of helicopter companies since the summer time of 2022, travelling from Leh to far off and tough to succeed in locations like Dibling, Drass and Padum, has turn into handy and reduce down journey time from 5 to 12 hours by automobile to 45 minutes.
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Ladakh is among the latest additions in the effort to make astro-toursim extra in style in India. Apart from the uncooked pure fantastic thing about the Himalayas, the Hanle Dark Sky Reserve (HDRS) is one other attraction which attracts stargazers, astro-photography lovers and newbie astronomers.
The IIA and the native authorities has arrange 18 telescopes in the space for astro-tourists and has used the assist of newbie {and professional} astronomers to coach locals to information them.
Why does it matter?
The village of Hanle consisting of 320 homes was designated as a darkish sky reserve in December 2022. The Hanle Dark Sky Reserve (HDRS), situated 270 kilometres from Leh, Ladakh’s capital, is a 1,073 sq km space that has been chosen for its excessive altitude, lack of synthetic mild and cloud cowl for viewing the evening sky with out disruptions
The Reserve wraps round a majority of the Changthang wildlife sanctuary, located 4,500 m above sea degree, has recorded roughly 270 clear nights in a 12 months
The reserve can be house to the Indian Astronomical Observatory, which requires clear skies, elevation from the populated areas and dry climate to look at faint radiation and light-weight which are important for the research of astronomy.
