Driving on mountain roads you never really get to know your direction. The roads are turning constantly and you cannot see till far through the trees. It is difficult to get your bearings right. The drive itself seems long and unending, and you feel you have travelled a long distance. Once you are at the peak and can look at the roads that you travelled on, the directions fall into place. A bird’s eye view! The distance that you travelled falls into perspective and you are surprised that you drove all those curves just to cross one small mountain.
I have climbed up the Naina Peak twice before, once on a school trip some time near 1981, then on a visit to ARIES observatory somewhere near 1995, with Neelam. As I recall those instances from memory, the climb seemed to be easy. This time it seemed difficult. It took about 90 minutes to climb the steep mountain side with tripods and cameras. I was hauling 100 kg up the mountain. About 93% was myself and rest 7% was a camera bag and tripod. This time I was also prepared for night stay with sleeping bags and a large foam sheet, (carried by a telescope operator that I found at the ‘Himalayan Darshan’ point). The short climb left me breathless. I vowed to stay at Nainital for a week and climb to the peak every day 
The view from the top also took my breath away! The entire town of Nainital and the lake is serenely spread out below the view point. The Naini Lake looks fantastic, green and it takes the classic shape of a Rajma bean. From the Naina Peak you can see till far in the south, west and east directions beyond the town and lake. You can see Khurpa Tal, and the road leading up to Nainital town from there. You can also see far in the south-west, Haldwani, Ram Nagar. In fact,You can hear voices from far off Bageshwar, Kausani too. You see there is a radio repeater station on Naina Peak serving the police communications in the entire region.
On the top I survived a short but heavy afternoon hail storm. I managed to cover the equipment with the foam sheet and run to the Forest (radio) Station. Got drenched and worried, but was dry soon after the storm passed.
To shoot night landscapes I like to combine a good landscape and a good part of the sky (in the same direction). At home while planning this shot I had calculated that at about 1 am the Milky Way would be rising and the dense bright Sagittarius part would be over Nainital town, as seen from the Naina Peak. Although the afternoon shower had cleared the sky a bit, but a cloud of haze stood fast over the town. Looks like I will have to climb the peak again to get a clear shot, a better night with less haze. For now I combined the results into a star trail image. Even the roads are nicely trailed in the image. Especially striking is the road from Kaladhungi to Nainital on the right bottom of the image. Above is the result of that half a night spent on top of Naina Peak, Nainital
Comments of all flavours are welcome.
Ajay Talwar
p.s. I was joined by Piyush Bhardwaj of ARIES observatary at the Peak. Approximately 1 hour beyond midnight we packed up the camera, walked down the peak till Tanki and drove back home.
http://www.twanight.org/talwar
Wonderful shot… beautiful view…
‘Beautiful and majestic as ever from Ajay……’ will be a cliche statement, but i cannot help it… can I ? My memories go back to 1976 , when i spent a couple of observing nights at the telescope sight….. and another couple of days in 1979 or 1980, during an ASI conference at Naini tal town… in those days an annual gathering of Indian astronomers and astrophysicists…….Ajay’s huge effort…kind of… CAPTURES IT ALL ….THE CELESTIAL WORLD AT YOUR DOORSTEP !
All I say is…….LONG LIVE AJAY and HIS instruments and the great spirit of exploration…..which he epitomises!
Superb shot there is so much to see that one has to go back and look again and again
I remember shooting some beautiful shots with Nainital observatory silhoutes under Ajay’s guidance – but this shot is the mother of all!
REALLY FABULOUS
Beautiful picture Ajay. Surprised with the amount of light pollution even at a place like Nainital.
Beautiful photo! Sweet fruit of hard labor! Could you tell me the technicals? What lens? How long was the exposure – 30 mins? 60 mins? What aperture?
Brilliant picture Ajay! The view is worth the climb
Ajay ji. Its awesome shot. I was travelling yday night in Mumbai-Pune expressway and passed thru tunnels. I love tunnels.
Your pic reminded me of those moments.
Nainital lights, small lake n lights, and panorama of stars – all look just great. Congrats for such a nice work.
Wonderful picture of Nainital at night! I have lovely memories of this place, even the view from China peak… but in daytime and…in 1966 !!!
(However the star trails seem odd, the center of the arcs should have been way up elevated at Naini’s latitude, or is it you are looking South?
What was the night view looking up north?)
Thanks everyone.
Sachin Vaish, I used a 15mm fisheye lens for this image, with exposures of 20 seconds for about 2 hours continuously.
Dear Prof Mistry, From the peak, Nainital lake is towards the south. The south celestial pole is below horizon therefore you get these star trail arches. The view towards the north was a forest. If you walk about a kilometre northwards you can see the Himalayan peaks, but this night was quite hazy.