The Crimean Astrophysical Observatory is located in the Bakhchisarai region, on the border with the Crimean Reserve, at an altitude of about 600 m above sea level. This place, according to many years of research by scientists at the Pulkovo Observatory, has the best transparency of the atmosphere.

In 1946, they began to build the village of Nauchny, in 1949 they installed the largest captured German telescope. In 1960, at the Leningrad Optical and Mechanical Plant LOMO, a reflector mirror with a diameter of 26 meters was polished by hand, and the most powerful telescope in Europe was put into operation in the Crimea. Tourists get acquainted with the museum dedicated to astronomical and space research, observe the work of huge mechanisms in the towers of telescopes. They admire the magnificent view of the Main Ridge, where on the Ai-Petri Yaila, in good weather, you can see the silver balls of the military space observatory. The forest park and Nauchnoye lakes are also very good, but after dark, visitors have the pleasure of looking at the Moon, Saturn with its rings and the closest stars with a two hundredfold magnification.
The Crimean Astrophysical Observatory is the largest astronomical institution in Ukraine. CRAO was organized in 1945 on the basis of the Simeiz branch of the Pulkovo Observatory, founded in 1908. The observatory has modern scientific equipment that allows for comprehensive astrophysical research in a wide spectral range of electromagnetic radiation - from hard gamma rays to meter radio waves, a wide variety of objects in the Universe (from artificial satellites of the Earth and small bodies of the solar system to extragalactic formations). CrAO designs and manufactures unique astrophysical equipment for both ground and space research.