Rajasthan in India has become the first state to launch the night sky astro tourism in all its 33 districts! Jaipur, the royal capital of Rajasthan, alone has four famous star gazing venues including Jantar-Mantar, Amber Fort, University of Maharaja and Jawahar Kala Kendra.
Mugdha Sinha, Rajasthan’s Department of Science and Technology Secretary, informed that besides Rajasthan, the Bikaner House in New Delhi has also been chosen as a hub for astro tourism and a telescope will be installed for tourists for skywatching.
Talking more about the event, she said that because of COVID-19, there was a strict lockdown, people were locked inside their houses and a number of interesting astronomical events were taking place in the sky.
Focusing more on the journey, she said that they later organised the star gazing session at the secretariat and the officials were also quite excited. Then the decision to launch it for the public was taken on January 21, 2021 and it was quite a hit.
Soon, recommendations started pouring in from officials from distant districts for sky gazing and the idea was accepted by the chief minister of Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot. On March 3, the CM announced the introduction of Night Sky Astro Tourism in all 33 districts of the state. Mugdha further added, “Now, we shall get telescopes for all districts and for Bikaner House too.”
It will be managed by calendars of the sky and sky will play the main guide to fix the dates for such events.
