Planetary Defense 1.0-meter Telescope

The University of North Carolina and the Astronomical Research Institute partner to operate the Planetary Defense 1.0-meter Telescope. This and the Planetary Defense 1.3-meter Telescope are so named to reflect their primary mission of carrying out southern-skies astrometric follow-up observations of Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs). Using the 1.0- and 1.3-meter together allows not only more asteroids to be monitored each night, but also allows simultaneous observations to rapidly characterize asteroids after discovery.

The telescope was formerly known as the SMARTS 1.0-meter Telescope and was operated by the Small and Moderate Aperture Research Telescope System (SMARTS) Consortium.

The Planetary Defense 1.0-meter Telescope is a reflecting telescope with a closed-tube Cassegrain design. Formerly known as the Yale 1.0-meter Telescope, it was originally located in Bethany, Connecticut, and was relocated to Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in 1972. 

It is operated in robotic mode with an optical imaging camera, thanks to NASA awards for carrying out rapid astrometric and photometric observations of NEAs.