The Observatory of Santa Maria a Monte, situated in the Tavolaia locality, began to operate in September 1999. Established by the Commune, which remodelled a building formerly used for scholastic activities for this purpose, it has a meeting hall and an environmental laboratory on the ground floor, with the telescope and its revolving dome on the first floor. Its site is included in the list of those protected against light pollution (Regional Law no. 37).

Through an agreement stipulated with the Commune, the Observatory is managed by the Isaac Newton Association of Santa Maria a Monte which, officially constituted in 1992, is engaged in teaching and divulging astronomy, as well as in research. The Association's educational activities are carried out in the town of Santa Maria a Monte and the surrounding communes, and initiatives are frequently organised in the public schools. The Association also holds numerous courses in astronomy on various levels, while the Observatory collaborates in the programme for international research on the minor planets organised by the Minor Planet Center of Cambridge, U.S.A.