SMARTS–GSU 1.5-meter Telescope

The SMARTS–GSU 1.5-meter Telescope is operated by the Georgia State University Research Foundation. The Foundation also operates the SMARTS–GSU 0.9-meter Telescope. The telescope was formerly known as the SMARTS 1.5-meter Telescope and was operated by the Small and Moderate Aperture Research Telescope System (SMARTS) Consortium from 2003 to 2023.

The 1.5-meter telescope is an open-tube Cassegrain that has been operated with both imagers and spectrographs. It is currently operated with a single instrument, the high-resolution optical spectrograph CHIRON that provides optical spectra over the wavelength range 415–880 nm at resolutions of 28,000 to 136,000.

The 1.5-meter telescope is used primarily for the RECONS (REsearch Consortium On Nearby Stars) program with a key focus on characterizing K and M dwarf stars, both as individual members of the solar neighborhood and in efforts to reveal orbiting companions that are stars, brown dwarfs, and jovian planets.