The conference venue
Princess Sirindhorn AstroPark is located in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It functions as the headquarters for the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) and home to the largest planetarium and astronomy exhibition complex in Thailand.
AstroPark is the center of Thailand’s only astronomy research institute where many researchers and engineers work tirelessly to improve upon the country’s astronomy, optics, atmospheric science, and space program. Many state-of-the-art facilities are situated within the AstroPark complex, such as the control center over the Thai Robotic Telescope network, spacecraft monitoring station, engineering and fabrication laboratories, clean room for development of new optics, radio receivers, spacecraft assembly, a mirror coating machine for upcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array project, High-Performance Computing, etc.
Situated within a few hours’ drive of AstroPark are Southeast Asia’s largest eyes in the sky. The 2.4m and 1m telescopes at the Thai National Observatory (TNO) on Doi Inthanon are the two largest optical telescopes located in Southeast Asia and among the largest in Asia, while the Thai National Radio Observatory (TNRO) houses the largest radio telescope in the region at 40m diameter along with its sister 13m telescope.
The exhibition and planetarium building of AstroPark serves as the home of NARIT’s public outreach program. The Astro Park, along with its 4 regional observatories for the public, receives over 200,000 visitors for the planetariums, 400,000 for the exhibits, and 40,000 for the public night observing sessions combined annually. These outreach infrastructures serve as the main anchor point for NARIT’s even larger and more comprehensive outreach program which services close to a million participants combined annually.
