  Devasthal, located in the Kumaun region of Himalayas is emerging as one of
the best optical astronomy site in the continent. The minimum recorded ground
level atmospheric seeing at the site is 0.6 arcsec with median value at 1.1
arcsec. Currently, a 1.3-m fast (f/4) wide field-of-view (66 arcmin) optical
telescope is operating at the site. In near future, a 4-m liquid mirror
telescope in collaboration with Belgium and Canada, and a 3.6-m optical
telescope in collaboration with Belgium are expected to be installed in 2013.
The telescopes will be operated by Aryabhatta Research Institute of
Observational Sciences. The first instruments on the 3.6-m telescope will be
in-house designed and assembled faint object spectrograph and camera. The
second generation instruments will be including a large field-of-view optical
imager, high resolution optical spectrograph, integral field unit and an
optical near-infrared spectrograph. The 1.3-m telescope is primarily used for
wide field photometry imaging while the liquid mirror telescope will see a time
bound operation to image half a degree wide strip in the galactic plane. There
will be an aluminizing plant at the site to coat mirrors of sizes up to 3.7 m.
The Devasthal Observatory and its geographical importance in between major
astronomical observatories makes it important for time critical observations
requiring continuous monitoring of variable and transient objects from ground
based observatories. The site characteristics, its expansions plans and first
results from the existing telescope are presented.
