Abstract:
The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) Bangalore has established the Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO) at an altitude of 4500 m above mean sea level atop Mt. Saraswati, Hanle, Changthang Ladakh, India. The birth of the world’s highest observatory was heralded by the first light on a 2-m aperture optical-inferred telescope on the night of September 26/27, 2000. This telescope will be operated remotely from the Centre for research and education in science and technology (CREST), another campus of IIA near Bangalore. This site characteristics, facilities and future plans are summarized in this report.