page_title: List of astronomical observatories
section_title: D
hierarchical_section_title: List of astronomical observatories / D
caption_attribution_description: The 74 inch telescope at the David Dunlap Observatory.
context_page_description: This is a list of astronomical observatories ordered by name, along with initial dates of operation and location. The list also includes a final year of operation for many observatories that are no longer in operation. While other sciences, such as volcanology and meteorology, also use facilities called observatories for research and observations, this list is limited to observatories that are used to observe celestial objects.
  Astronomical observatories are mainly divided into four categories: space-based, airborne, ground-based, and underground-based.
  Many modern telescopes and observatories are located in space to observe astronomical objects in wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum that cannot penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and are thus impossible to observe using ground-based telescopes.
  Being above the atmosphere, these space observatories can also avoid the effects of atmospheric turbulence that plague ground based telescopes, although new generations of adaptive optics telescopes have since then dramatically improved the situation on the ground.
caption: David Dunlap Observatory
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