The 2.3m "Aristarchos" telescope is the largest research infrastructure of the National Observatory of Athens (NOA). It is an f/8 Ritchey-Chretien telescope, built by the Germany company Carl Zeiss GmbH, which has an established tradition in telescope design and construction. The Institute of Astronomy Astrophysics Space Applications and Remote Sensing (IAASARS) of NOA manages the telescope, which is located at an altitude of 2340m at Helmos Observatory, approximately 220 km southwest of Athens, near the city of Kalavryta.

The inauguration of  "Aristarchos" took place in 2007 and the telescope is currently operating in shared-risk commissioning mode. The telescope is the largest in the Balkans and the second largest in continental Europe. It utilizes technology currently used at 10m class telescopes allowing for superb pointing accuracy as well as excellent tracking.

Please follow the links on this page for more details on the instrumentation etc.