The 40-in CHARA telescope (front) and the 60-in telescope (back) at Mt. Wilson Observatory, California, USA. Mt. Wilson observatory, founded in 1904, is located north of Los Angeles in Southern California. Over the years there has been a number of revolutionary discoveries made at Mt. Wilson Observatory. Pictured here are the CHARA telescope dome (front) and the 60-in telescope dome (back). Georgia State University's Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) operates an array of six 40-in telescopes. The array is configured as an interferometer and provides the resolving capability of a single telescope a fifth of a mile in diameter. It is considered the most powerful instrument of its kind in the world. The 60-in telescope originally built in 1908 is currently a multi-purpose instrument capable of providing different optical configurations for a variety of uses. June 2006.