It was built in 1935 and 1936, and technically designed by physics and astronomy professor Yrjö Väisälä.
He defended his doctoral thesis in University of Turku in 1933 on the metrology of length by means of the Väisälä comparator.
Yrjö Väisälä | Väisälä | Vilho Väisälä | Schmidt-Väisälä camera | Brunt–Väisälä frequency | Aarno Yrjö-Koskinen |
The asteroid 1449 Virtanen, discovered by the renowned Finnish astronomer and physicist Yrjö Väisälä, was named after him.
The association was founded by Yrjö Väisälä, Liisi Oterma, Hilkka Rantaseppä-Helenius, and other astronomers working at University of Turku.