The Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory, or Byurakan Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the Armenian Academy of Sciences. It is located on the slope of Mount Aragats in the village of Byurakan in Armenia.
It was founded in 1946 by Viktor Hambardzumyan.
The observatory has discovered special star clusters – stellar associations (1947), more than 1,000 flare stars, dozens of Supernovae, hundreds of Herbig-Haro objects and cometary nebulae, hundreds of galaxies.
Byurakan Observatory’s main telescope is a 2.6 m cassegrain reflector, along with a 1 and .5 m Schmidt camera as well as other smaller telescopes.