It was assigned co-ordinates 36 to 39 degrees North between 1928 and 1938. Akbar Ali became Director of the Observatory in 1944 and worked till 1960. Akbar Ali installed the 48" telescope at the Observatory. Under his directorship, the study of photoelectric photometry was introduced and the study of comets, variable stars, lunar occultation, solar activity and study of motion of clusters was undertaken. It also participated in the solar and seismological observations as part of the International Geophysical Year (1957-58). A K Das was Director of the Observatory in 1960 for a very short time after his retirement as Director of Kodaikanal Observatory. However, his sudden death meant that K D Abhayankar was made acting Director between 1960-1963. Abhayankar moved the site of the observatory from Hyderabad to a tiny hillock between the villages of Japal and Rangapur, at a distance of 55 km from Hyderabad. R V Karandikar became director in 1963. The hillock was installed in 1964 and commissioned in December, 1968. In 1964, the University Grants Commission recognized the astronomy department and the observation facilities as Nizamia and Japal-Rangapur as Center for Advanced Studies in Astronomy (CASA). In order to observe the solar eclipse on February 16, 1980, CASA collaborated with Physical Research Laboratory and Space Applications Center in Ahmedabad to obtain a 10 feet steerable dish. This dish was used to make high resolution microwave brightness temperature measurements. It is since being used to study solar flux. The Observatory has a 48 inch telescope, the second largest in Asia, after the 93 inch Vainu Bappu Observatory. The telescope was mechanically operated. It was used to study comets, planetary atmosphere and near-Earth asteroids. The Observatory has two other 12 inch telescopes and one 10 feet radio telescope operating at 10 GHz. It currently lies unused on the premises of the Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad, India. The observatory at Rangapur faces the same issue of light pollution and urbanisation of the locality and remains unused. There are currently proposals to convert the space into an engineering college.