Since the observatory is situated amidst a large mass of water, air turbulence which occurs due to ground heating by sun's rays is decreased.

Later, he was joined by Dr. Ashok Ambastha in 1983 and subsequently by many others at different stages who have continued further contributing to the growth of this observatory.

USO fills the large longitudinal gap between Australia and Spain, and provides a link for continuous solar coverage in international collaborative programs, including the Global Oscillations Network Group (GONG).

Since 1981, USO has been managed by the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, for the Department of Space, Government of India.

MAST is an off-axis Gregorian-Coude telescope with a 50 cm aperture to be used to study the Sun's magnetic field.