For a shared love for astronomy, two entrepreneurs and friends from Delhi and Bengaluru respectively — Ramashish Ray and Paul Savio decided to combine their love for space, photography and stargazing in their startup ‘Starscapes’. Always an avid photographer Ramashish and a passionate astronomy lover since childhood Paul fascinated by the intricacies of the universe decided to set up their venture more than half a decade ago in 2015.
“We wanted people to fully experience the joy of rediscovering the night sky and give their children the opportunity to enjoy it the same way they did in their childhood,” said Paul in an interview. “We thought of expanding the model across the country, which led to the birth of Starscapes in 2017. We registered the business in Gurugram.” Adding that they are “India’s first and only chain of observatories that gives travel enthusiasts an integrated astronomy experience while promoting Astro-tourism.”
At the core of their endeavour was an attempt to make astronomy experiences available for everyone. What started as a single observatory in Kausani has now grown to observatories in over 11 locations across seven states. They have private observatories in Bhimtal in Uttarakhand, Jaipur in Rajasthan, and Ooty in Tamil Nadu and have two more coming up at Coorg in Karnataka and Mukteshwar in Uttarakhand.
On realising people’s curiosity about learning about space, they began conducting Astro-tours in Spiti Valley and Narkanda, astrophotography workshops at the observatory in Kausani, and other remote dark sky locations like the Sandhan Valley in Maharashtra.
You can check out Starscapes’ experiences here.
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