Lowell Observatory technology to be telecast on the Discovery channels. The primary mirror of the Discovery Channel Telescope will be in diameter, with an uncommon meniscus design for such a large mirror. This mirror was ground and polished into its parabolic shape at the Optical Fabrication and Engineering Facility of the College of Optical Sciences of the University of Arizona (in Tucson, Arizona). Lowell Observatory's astronomers conduct research on a wide range of solar system and astrophysical topics using ground-based, airborne, and space-based telescopes. Among the many current programs are a search for near-Earth asteroids, a survey of the Kuiper Belt beyond
Lowell Observatory Flagstaff. Also located on the Mars Hill campus is the Pluto Discovery Telescope, used by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 to discover the dwarf planet Pluto. Lowell Observatory currently operates four research telescopes at its Anderson Mesa dark-sky site, located southeast of Flagstaff, including the Perkins Telescope (in partnership with Boston University) and the John S. Hall Telescope. Lowell is a partner with the United States Naval Observatory and Naval Research Laboratory in the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer (NPOI) also located at that site. The Observatory also operates smaller research telescopes at its historic site on Mars Hill and in Australia