Vainu Bappu Observatory

In Bangalore for the weekend, sat in the lobby and mooching off their wi-fi!

Last weekend was relaxed as we have had a few weekends of 7-10 hours bus journeys and we went to Bangalore in the next state province today. Our neighbour’s uncle works in the Vainu Bappu observatory in Kavalur (Indian institute of Astrophysics) so we got the bus from Alangayam up the mountain. It is a lot cooler up there so was a really nice walk. The gardens were really well kept with several species of flowers. There were several telescopes in domes getting bigger as we walking further into the grounds. We all squished into the lift and went to the top floor to see the massive telescope. Sadly it was undergoing maintenance so the giant mirror was covered by a blue sheet but we got to see it rotate during testing. There was also a red mesh platform on the top floor around the bottom of the dome and you could see for miles in every direction. The forests and the mountains from there were incredibly beautiful.  In the evening we watched “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” on the PC as a sort of movie night. Decided to stay in on Sunday and read as don’t have a free day now until I get back to England which is creeping up fast. 



















Telescope











View from platform








View from platform
















Arty shot with smaller observatory in distance
















Observatory observation group
















Movie night.

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