The Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) is located near Big Pine, California in a valley east of the Sierra. Because we like to visit observatories and also like the east slope of the sierra, we signed up for one of the observatory’s monthly tours. OVRO was established in 1956 and is owned and operated by Cal Tech. It’s one of the largest university-operated radio observatories in the world. There is a 130 ft. dish and an array of six 34 ft. dishes.