The observatory was built on the idea of Hristo Kostov, the physics teacher of the secondary school, and of a group of amateur astronomers in the town. Besides teaching astronomy, from 1964 to 1974 it was also a base for observing artificial satellites of the Earth.
The telescopes
The largest telescope of the first years was the 15 cm Carl Zeiss of the Maksutov–Cassegrain system, with a star camera and a planet camera. Today it is used for demonstrations to visitors.
In 1965 a 60 cm Cassegrain telescope made by Carl Zeiss Jena was ordered. It stands in the six-metre dome and works with two light receivers: an SBIG ST-8 CCD camera and an electrophotometer in photon-counting mode.
In 1994 the observatory also received a modern, automated, compact telescope: a 14-inch Celestron of the Schmidt–Cassegrain system, with a Star-1 CCD camera. It is in the second dome, 4 m in diameter.
A base of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
In 1976 the observatory became an observing base of the Institute of Astronomy of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. A few years later it was extended: a second dome was built beside the six-metre one.