Asteroseismology: Past, present and future

Asteroseismology studies stars with a wide variety of interior and surface conditions. For two decades asteroseismic techniques have been applied to many pulsating stars across the HR diagram. Asteroseismology is now a booming field of research with stunning new discoveries; I highlight a personal selection of these in this review, many of which are discussed in more detail elsewhere in these proceedings. For many years the Nainital-Cape Survey for northern roAp stars has been running at ARIES, so I emphasise new spectroscopic results for roAp stars and point out the outstanding prospects for the planned ARIES 3-m telescope at Devastai. High precision spectroscopy has revolutionised the asteroseismic study of some types of stars — particularly solar-like oscillators and roAp stars — while photometry is still the best way to study the frequency spectra that are the basic data of asteroseismology. New telescopes, new photometers and space missions are revolutionising asteroseismic photometry. In addition to the ground-based potential of asteroseismic spectroscopy, India has the knowledge and capability for space-based asteroseismic photometry. The future for asteroseismology is bright indeed, especially for Indian astronomers.