NARIT's Headquarter

 

NARIT's headquarter is in Chiangmai province in the Northern part of Thailand. The Director has his office here. The headquarter also functions as the center of administration and houses the offices for personnel, strategy and budget, finance, internal audit, legal affairs, IT and international affairs. To facilitate all the communication, NARIT has also set up its liaison office in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.

 

        
 

 

 

NARIT's governing body is the Executive Board which composes of 11 high-level representatives from various sections. The board is responsible for

• setting up the direction, strategy and operation plan of NARIT
• ensuring that the policy encrypted by the Institute is followed
• approving both ongoing and future programmes

NARIT's Executive Board meets every month to make decision on relevant plans and programmes of NARIT.

 

 

 

Staffing 

It is important that NARIT’s activities are carried out efficiently and cost-effectively in order to ensure that the budget are used wisely. As NARIT management system is very flexible, highly qualified staff capable of putting good ideas into effect is crucial for driving research projects into operation.

To carry out its programmes, NARIT needs to recruit its personnel effectively. NARIT has an office for human resources at the headquarter building in Chiangmai where recruitment policy is decided and administered.  

 

 

 

Finance
Careful controls are in place to ensure that NARIT and all its sections work within their budgets. In addition, the Office of Internal Audit ensures transparency in all NARIT’s dealings.

 

Legal affairs
NARIT’s Legal Office is responsible for all legal matters concerned with NARIT. 

 

 

Thai National Observatory

 

   

 

Thai National Observatory is the main facility of the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, located at the very top of the highest mountain (Doi Inthanon) in  Chiang Mai Province, which is also renowned for the superb climate and tourist attraction. At 2,457 meters above the mean sea level, the observatory has superb seeing conditions suitable for advanced research in Astronomy and Astrophysics. The Observatory houses a 2.4-meter reflecting telescope with an alt-azimuth drive system. This system has been synchronized with automatic control of the dome structure. The observatory will therefore play a significant role in supporting research in optical astronomy and international collaboration.

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The Observatory is now under construction and is expected to be completed in 2011.

 

 

Provincial Public Observatories Network

 

 

In addition to the main National Observatory at Doi Inthanon, NARIT has been committed to establish 5 more provincial observatories scattered through the five geographical zones of the country. These observatories, though modest in scale comparing to the main National Observatory, will allow the public in the areas and nearby districts to gain better access to information in astronomy and space technology. Consequently, this will strengthen the infrastructure of the nation’s capacity in astronomy and space technology and will contribute to capacity building in education and even research in the field in the long run. It is speculated that through these provincial observatories, collaboration and cooperation between the well established in big cities and the rural ones will substantialize.

 

  

 

            The five provincial public observatories will be situated in Nakorn Ratchasima, Khon Kaen, Chachoengsao, Pitsanuloke and Songkla, representing the lower north eastern, the upper north eastern, the eastern, the lower northern and the southern parts of Thailand respectively. Each of the so-mentioned public observatories is equipped with a 0.5 meter telescope, a CCD camera, and a spectrograph. Most of them are expected to operate in their full capacities not later than 2015.

 

The already existing observatory in the North, Sirindhorn Observatory, has become a alliance of NARIT observatories in early 2009.

 

 

 

Alliance Observatory - Chiang Mai University's Sirindhorn Observatory

 

 

Sirindhorn Observatory (SO) was established in 1977 under the auspices of Chiang Mai University, where Astronomy is one of the disciplines taught in the Department of Physics.

It is located at km.12 up Doi (a local dialect for "Mountain") Suthep (latt. 18* 47" 19' N, long 98* 55" 29.9'  E , 789 meters above sea level ) in the vicinity of Suthep-Pui National Park.

SO operates the 0.5-meter, 0.4-meter and 0.2-meter reflective telescopes at this site. Also available are a photoelectric photometer, a CCD photometer and a CCD spectrograph.

SO has become an alliance network of  NARIT since early 2009.

 

last update: 18 June 2010