Georgia State University at Georgia State is split between physics and astronomy. Areas of research range from biophysics, condensed matter physics, neurophysics, nuclear physics, and physics education and innovative instruction. The astronomy program uses many observatories, including the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona and the Small and Moderate Aperture Research Telescope System (or SMARTS) in Chile, and the CHARA array on Mount Wilson Observatory in Los Angeles County, California, Hard Labor Creek Observatory in Rutledge, Georgia, and the Urban Life Observatory, all of which are operated by Georgia State. Astronomy is now also a partner in the Apache Point Observatory 3.5-m telescope. Biological
Lowell Observatory and Chile. Past Anderson Mesa, on the peak of Happy Jack, Lowell Observatory has also built and is commissioning the Discovery Channel Telescope in partnership with Discovery Communications, Inc. The observatory has carried out a wide array of research. One of its programs was the measurement of the variability of solar irradiance. When Harold L. Johnson took over as the director in 1952, the stated objective became to focus on light from the Sun reflecting from Uranus and Neptune. In 1953, the current telescope was erected. Beginning in 1954, this telescope began monitoring the brightness of these two planets, and