Corralitos Observatory facts for kids

Corralitos Observatory was a special place where scientists and students studied the stars and Moon. It was an astronomical observatory located about 30 kilometers (19 mi) west of Las Cruces, New Mexico, in an area called the Rough and Ready Hills. The observatory officially opened on October 12, 1965. It was a remote station for Dearborn Observatory at Northwestern University.

Exploring the Cosmos: The Corralitos Observatory

Corralitos Observatory was a hub for exciting space discoveries and research. It played a key role in several important projects, from watching the Moon for mysterious flashes to finding exploding stars far away.

Watching the Moon for Strange Lights

In October 1965, a special program started at Corralitos Observatory. It was sponsored by NASA and aimed to find something called transient lunar phenomenon (TLP). TLP refers to brief, strange lights or changes seen on the Moon's surface.

Teams of two observers worked together, spending a total of 6,466 hours watching the Moon. This program continued until 1972. Even with all that effort, they didn't officially confirm any TLP. However, they did check 39 reports of TLPs that amateur astronomers had sent in during that time.

Special Cameras and Telescopes

The observatory was home to some advanced equipment. On October 22, 1966, a unique Schmidt wide-angle camera was set up. This camera was sponsored by Chrysler. It was built as a test model for a camera that would look for far ultraviolet light. This type of camera was planned for the Apollo spacecraft. It might have been the very first working camera of its kind.

Also in 1966, a special 0.3 m (12 in) image orthicon system was moved to Corralitos. This system helped turn light into electronic images. It was later replaced with an even better 0.4 m (16 in) system in 1969. Many of the people working at the observatory were students from New Mexico State University.

Discovering Exploding Stars

During the 1970s, Corralitos Observatory started an important project: finding supernovae. Supernovae are huge, powerful explosions that happen when a star dies. This was one of the first programs to use computers to help search for them.

The observatory used 0.6 m (24 in) and 0.3 m (12 in) Cassegrain telescopes. A computer would automatically point the telescope to a galaxy. Then, observers could compare a high-resolution image on a monitor to a master picture. If it was hard to tell, they would quickly check photographic negatives. Corralitos Observatory successfully found ten supernovae!

Capturing Apollo Missions

The observatory also captured some amazing moments related to the Apollo space missions. On April 14, 1970, two observers, U.T. James and Mickey Gallivan, used the 0.6 m telescope. They are believed to be the only ones to have photographed the explosion of Apollo 13 as it neared the Moon. In 1971, Justus Dunlap took a photograph of Apollo 14 separating from its S-IVB rocket from the observatory.

Observatory Equipment in the 1970s

By 1973, the observatory had several important telescopes. It had 0.6 m (24 in) and 0.4 m (16 in) Cassegrain telescopes. These were equipped with special electronic imaging tubes. The 0.6 m telescope could even be operated automatically by a computer! A 0.3 m (12 in) Cassegrain telescope was used for photometry, which measures the brightness of stars. The special 0.152 m (6.0 in) Chrysler Schmidt telescope was still available too. By 1977, the 0.6 m and 0.4 m telescopes were the main ones still in use.

Changes and Closure

In 1978, the observatory stopped its main operations because of money problems. In 1981, it was transferred to a new group called the Corralitos Astronomical Research Association (CARA).

As late as 1997, the observatory was still reported to be studying faint Be stars. These are stars that have a special spectrum. However, the CARA website stopped being updated after 2001 and was shut down in 2012. There are no new reports of the observatory being active in scientific papers.