The Hard Labor Creek Observatory is located in Rutledge?s Hard Labor Creek State Park. Certain services of the observatory are free and open to the public on specific dates while the observatory is also a big hit with professional astronomers, thanks to the city?s dark skies. Viewers may enjoy sighting the moon and other heavenly objects in the universe. Research telescopes available at the observatory include the following: 16-inch Meade, 16-inch Boller and Chivens, 20-inch R-C Optics Telescios, and a Multiple-Telescope Telescope.

The Multiple-Telescope telescope of the observatory is a particular joy to behold, considering how its affordable construction enables viewers to enjoy distant sights. It?s equipped with nine mirrors ? 1/3 of a meter in length ? all of which are connected to their own optical fibres that feed data to a spectrograph.

The Hard Labor Creek Observatory is owned and managed by the Georgia State University.