Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital was established in 2004. It is an autonomous institute under the administrative control of the Department of Science and Technology, government of India. It is one of the leading research institutes which specialize in observational astronomy and astrophysics and atmospheric sciences. The main research interests of astronomy & astrophysics division are in solar, planetary, stellar, galactic and extra-galactic astronomy including stellar variability’s, X-ray binaries, star clusters, nearby galaxies, quasars, and inherently transient events like supernovae and highly energetic gamma ray bursts.