Onsala Space Observatory

Radio telescopes are one of the more impressive types of telescopes mainly due to the enormous size of the dishes. While the biggest radio telescopes these days are large arrays of small telescopes, visiting a radio observatory still feels surreal. 

Onsala Space Observatory was founded in 1949 by professor Olof Rydbeck as a part of Chalmers University in Gothenburg. The site has grown and expanded since, not only by the construction of new telescopes but also by taking on more interdisciplinary tasks. 

The large dish and the smaller one primarily work on radio astronomy, but several other telescopes study our planet’s plate tectonics and water vapor levels. There are also tide meters, as well as a local gravity meter.