The Vainu Bappu Observatory of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics traces its origin back to the year 1786 when William Petrie set up his private observatory at his garden house at Egmore, Madras, which eventually came to be known as the Madras Observatory. Later it was moved over to Kodaikanal and functioned there as the Kodaikanal Observatory since 1899.

      M.K. Vainu Bappu who took over as the Director of the Kodaikanal Observatory in 1960, found a sleepy little hamlet called Kavalur in the Javadu Hills as a suitable site for establishing optical telescopes for observing the celestial objects. This came to be known as Kavalur Observatory. Later on,  autonomy was obtained and the Head Quarters moved over to Bangalore with the new name as the Indian Institute of Astrophysics.

Location:

      Kavalur observatory is located in Kavalur in the Javadu Hills in Alangayam, Vellore District. The Kavalur Observatory is located in a 100 acre forest land in Tamil Nadu, which is strewn with a variety of greenery of tropical region besides a number of medicinal plants with an occasional appearance of some wild life like deer, snakes and scorpions. Several varieties of birds have also been spotted in the campus. The observatory is at an altitude of 725m above mean sea level (longitude 78° 49.6' E ; latitude 12° 34.6' N). Apart from being reasonably away from city lights and industrial areas, the location has been chosen in order to be closer to the earth's equator for covering both northern and southern hemispheres with equal ease. In addition, its longitudinal position is such that it is the only major astronomical facility between Australia and South Africa for observing the southern objects.