The observatory usually has several long term visitors from other institutes in Finland and from abroad. To make the visits feasible, the observatory has guest rooms at its immediate vicinity, rented from the adjacent Institute of Agriculture. The latter also provides many of the services needed at the remote location of the observatory. Together with the Institute, the observatory has taken active part in the regional planning of the land use in Piikkiö county, in order to ensure the proper lighting conditions for the operation of the observatory.

In many occasions, Piikkiö county has expressed the hope that the observatory could be open to tourists since it is nationally well known and would attract visitors to the county. Unfortunately, this would not be possible without undue disruption to work. Instead, the observatory receives about 40 groups per year with a total of over one thousand visitors. These groups range from kindergarten children to pensioners, and come from all over the country. The groups are introduced free of charge to the activities of the observatory.

Several staff members are also active in popularizing and teaching astronomy in various parts of Finland. This happens both within the amateur astronomical societies and in high schools and other institutions where specially tailored astronomy courses have been taught. One of the most popular international astronomy text books, Fundamental Astronomy, has been written by the staff members in collaboration with astronomers from the University of Helsinki. This book is now in its second edition, and is available in English, German and Finnish.

One should also mention the numerous popular books written in Finnish by the staff members. One of them has won the prestigious Finlandia Prize and another one received an honorary mention. One of the staff members is an editor of the leading Science journal in Finland, Tiede 2000, and provides an important link between the academic world and the public at large.

The activities of the observatory have become widely known through appearances in television, radio and national newspapers. For the professional audience, the observatory publishes an annual report which gives the highlights of the recent research. These highlights appear frequently also in the international press such as New Scientist, Science News, Nature, etc. Through these news stories the work of the observatory has achieved good international coverage and high citation rates.

The observatory is an independent research unit directly under the central administration of the university. The teaching of astronomy happens within the Department of Physics, and it is well integrated with the Physics teaching program. In this way the students obtain a wide range of skills which enable them to work in other fields besides astronomy.

Some of the areas of the observatory, in particular Optical manufacturing technology and Geodesy, do not have any associated teaching program at all while other fields, eg. Space Astronomy, are taught only on a temporary basis. The permanent Astronomy teaching staff of three persons is very small in comparison with other observatories and other countries.

In future, the teaching program in the fields represented by the observatory should be developed. The teaching should continue within the Physics Department, but the resources should be increased. Also the coordination with the Space Physics laboratory should be improved.

The influence of the observatory is seen in everyday life of the nation eg. in the form of the information calculated for the Finnish Almanac, in the contribution to the Finnish time service and in the aid to navigation through the GPS station, in the monitoring of land rise in Finland, and also in monitoring earthquakes with a seismic station. Thus the observatory provides essential services to the community, in addition to carrying out the duties of basic research and technological development.