The Stockholm Observatory site at Saltsjöbaden was established with a 40-inch (102 cm) reflecting telescope from Grubb, built in 1931.

Many old observatory instruments involved determining the location of stars, the local time, and data was recorded manually.

In the late 19th century, astrophotography became more common, and the Replsold refractor is known to have been used for making images, which had to be done with chemicals that reacted with light.

59°20′30″N 18°03′17″E / 59.34167°N 18.05472°E / 59.34167; 18.05472 A newer observatory was built in Saltsjöbaden outside Stockholm and completed in 1931 (the architect this time being Axel Anderberg).

The young Hjalmar Branting, later the first social democratic prime minister of Sweden, was employed as a mathematics assistant at the Stockholm Observatory 1879–1880 and 1882–1883.

[8] Later instruments by the 19th century include a 7-inch Repsold refractor on an equatorial mount, which was noted to be used at the observatory for parallax observations of bright stars in 1884 edition of Encyclopædia Britannica.