Tourists heading to Matheran can now look forward to a fulfilling session of stargazing using some of the most high-end telescopes. The tiny town in the low mountains now boasts of an astronomical observatory centre, becoming the only hill station in the state to have one.

Conceptualised by Matheran municipal council to boost tourism, the observatory near Paymaster Garden is being given finishing touches and is most likely to be opened before Diwali. The centre offers a 35-seater 3D theatre, an exhibition centre and an observatory dome.

"Matheran is ready to offer a complete new experience to tourists this season. Enjoying stargazing from the highest point in Matheran with zero light pollution is second to none and cannot be experienced in any other city," said councillor Ajay Sawant, adding the council has decided to call the pride of the hill, 'Matheran Aakashganga' and have brought the best of telescopes and used high-end technology.

Sawant, who played an important role as president of the council in 2013 by getting Rs 80 lakh sanctioned for the project by the then Collector HK Jawale, said the council will soon fix a reasonable ticket rate for the facility. "We want the facility to benefit the residents and are training local youth in handling the facility," he said.

Shailesh Sansare, an amateur astronomer who overlooked the project work and procurements said there will be two activities at the site – one during the day and other in the night. "Tourists who want to visit the observatory during the day can enjoy 3D shows based on astronomy, nature, science and adventure and also visit the exhibition centre on astronomy and bio-diversity of Matheran," said Sansare adding the entire work was done under the supervision of senior amateur astronomer DK Soman.

However, the session post sunset will be the main attraction. "Tourists can gather around sunset, enjoy twilight sky with naked eyes and as darkness sets in watch the constellations, planets, stars and other interesting features of the galaxy using telescopes. The GoTo 14inch telescope is expected to be a hit. Costing Rs 12 lakh, it can have a database of 30,000 objects and needs no manual adjustments. Besides, there will be a 10-inch telescope and another 12-inch one," said Sansare. The observatory will also have giant binoculars to observe comet activities.

At the moment, only setting up of the 3.5-metre diametre observatory dome is pending completion apart from some other finishing touches. The peak season for star gazing and night sky watching is from November to February when the sky is clear, though the period well extends to May. The hill station receives around five lakh tourists every year.