Digpa-ratsa Ri - Hanle Observatory

Far far away....a black top road running in between two mountain ranges for miles and miles together. This is the road that leads you to a remote town called Hanle which boasts of the world's highest observatory for optical & infra-red astronomy. The place is free of tourists and the town had little or no provisions for more than 4-6 visitors at one time. We were lucky to find one of the two rooms available at the lone guest house in town. There may be no cell phones in this area, but there's internet at the observatory and a satellite phone at the guest house. The observatory is remotely controlled by scientists sitting in a cosy Bengalooru office while a resident engineer and some other ground staff rough it out at the observatory.

Tech Specs:
Canon 7D + Canon 24-105 F4L
Shot at 24mm, f16, 1/30s, ISO 100


Hanle also has one of the oldest monasteries in Ladakh dated back to the 17th century, but more on that in a later post.