Known as Big Ear, the observatory was part of Ohio State University's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project.

[1] The observatory completed the Ohio Sky Survey in 1971, and from 1973–1995, Big Ear was used to search for extraterrestrial radio signals, making it the longest running SETI project in history.

The observatory was disassembled in 1998 when developers purchased the site from the university and used the land to expand a nearby golf course.

[2] In 1977, the Big Ear recorded an unusual and possible extraterrestrial radio signal, which became known as the Wow!

[4] The Big Ear was listed in the 1995 Guinness Book of World Records under the category of "Longest Extraterrestrial Search": The longest-running full-scale SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) project is the Ohio SETI Program at Ohio State University in Columbus, OH, which has searched the universe for extraterrestrial radio signals for 22 years, beginning in 1973.