Facilities
The following facilities will be provided to the paid participants at the Milky Way Voyage at ARIES, Nainital. Do carry your payment receipt with you for entering the venue.
Telescope grounds to setup your telescope, visual or photographic setup. The designated telescope ground is the grassy area in between the 40" telescope building and the 22" telescope building. The terrace area in these two buildings is also available for telescopes.
Electricity will be provided on site for operating your telescope, dew heaters, cameras, laptop etc. Please do limit the use of electricity to operate only astronomy related equipment. If you require electricity please do mention in your registration form. Don't forget to bring along an long extension cord with you for electric points to be available close to your telescope.
Some of the largest amateur made and owned telescopes in India will be on site for participants to view the heavens. Legendary skies of Nainital combined with these humongous light buckets will leave a indelible mark on the participants' minds forever.
We are inviting telescope vendors from all over India to come and participate in the Milky Way Voyage. They will be free to sell any scopes and accessories at the star party for all participants.
There will be limited shuttle facility running between Nainital city and ARIES. Participants are invited to use the facility to transport their equipment on the shuttle. The shuttle will run between Tallital bus stop-Nainital and telescope grounds at ARIES a certain number of times, at other times during the day, it will run between Tallital bus stop and Hanuman Garhi (temple), from where there is a scenic 1 km walking path to the observatory.
A presentation room will be made available for participants presentations. The presentations have to be carried on a CD or your own laptop. The LCD projector in the presentation room can be used to display your photographs of the night sky or any other astronomy related innovation that you may have carried out. Do keep in mind that Milky Way Voyage is a star party and not an astronomy meet or a convention. Participants will be more interested in looking at the meridian rather than what's in the presentation room.
A tour of the facilities and telescopes at ARIES will be conducted. The tour will be conducted in fixed batches for the participants. A presentation on ARIES will also be made in the presentation room.
We are trying to make available Wi-fi internet facility on the telescope grounds for all participants. We will know for sure whether this facility will be available by the time the second announcement is made.
You will be able to leave your telescopes on the telescope grounds after the first night, to be ready for observing on the second night. Some security will be available to keep a watch on the telescopes. You will be responsible to cover your telescopes with several large plastic bags and nicely tied up. Cover your telescopes so that they are protected from drizzle and gusts of wind. The plastic bags should be tied up and the mounting also tied down to the ground with either tent pegs or heavy bricks or stones. A place to store your telescopes inside the a building between two observing nights will also be provided.
Canteen services will be provided on the two observing nights for snacks and tea/coffee. Participants will pay themselves for dinner and snacks. The location of the Canteen is very close to the Telescope Grounds at ARIES. Toilet facilities will be available at several places on the ARIES campus.