The funding for the Aristarchos telescope came jointly from the European Commission and the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT). Pre-approval of the project by GSRT took place in November 1997, whereas the first and the final proposal to the GSRT had already been processed in March and September 1997 respectively. Following the international tender for the telescope construction, won by Carl Zeiss Jena (CZJ) in March 1998, the final approval for the project was finally given by GSRT in June 1998, its total cost being 5 million euros. In July 1998 the contract between NOA and CZJ was signed, succeeded by the preliminary and the critical design review which hadThe initial thoughts about a medium size optical telescope with remarkable capabilities and more competitive than the one in Kryoneri Korinthias constituted a long standing desire of the group of observational astronomy at the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the National Observatory of Athens (NOA). been completed in December 1998 and March 1999 respectively. The location of the Helmos Observatory came naturally as a complex combination of road access, infrastructure, good atmospheric conditions and vicinity to the capital and its airport. This concluded the first stage of the whole enterprise.

The second activity stage commenced in July 2001 and included the erection of the telescope tower, the control building (35 m away from the tower) and the telescope assembly in Jena in January 2002. The telescope building was constructed by PROTER ATE and comprised two different and independent structures, so that human activity and heat sources would not interfere with the telescope and its optical performance. The latest antiseismic technology was also applied. In June 2003, the enclosure was completed which was superceded by the interior telescope cylinder base. By then, the whole construction site was ready to welcome the brand new ARISTARCHOS Optical Telescope. The latter was integrated at CZJ. The installation of the heavy parts of the telescope infrastructure: telescope tube and altazimouth mounting system was initiated in June 2003. The altazimuth platform was actually the heaviest single piece of the structure weighing 7.4 tons. However, the primary and the secondary telescope mirrors (2.3 m and 0.75 m) were appended to the main body in summer 2004. The total weight of the moving parts of the telescope was 29 tons and 34 tons infrastructure inclusive. By the end of summer 2004 the second activity stage was finally accomplished.

On the 15th of September 2004, ARISTARCHOS observed the skies for the first time. Among other things, the Saturn planetary nebula at a distance of 3000 light years and the ring planetary nebula at a distance of 2300 light years were observed, although not during a photometric night. The latter if combined with the incomplete tests performed by then, could reveal the real capabilities of the telescope. From this point onwards the third and last activity stage set out. This consisted of first light images, a staff training period and most of all, a long interval of Site Acceptance Tests (optics, electronics, mechanics etc) which is still running. It is expected that all the above will be achieved by summer 2011, when ARISTARCHOS will be fully operating.