Cloudcroft Observatory, ( obs. code: V29) is an

astronomical Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest include ...

observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Th ...

located in the

Lincoln National Forest Lincoln National Forest is a unit of the U.S. Forest Service located in southern New Mexico. The Lincoln National Forest covers an extensive 1.1 million acres in southeastern New Mexico. Established by Presidential Proclamation in 1902 as the Li ...

near Cloudcroft,

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

, approximately northeast of

Alamogordo Alamogordo () is a city in and the county seat of Otero County, New Mexico, Otero County, New Mexico, United States. A city in the Tularosa Basin of the Chihuahuan Desert, it is bordered on the east by the Sacramento Mountains (New Mexico), Sac ...

. It is owned by the Tzec Maun Foundation, a private astronomical organization. Known as the Cloudcroft Electro-Optical Research Facility when it was built in 1962, it was owned by the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...

(USAF) until 1982 and initially operated by the Air Force Avionics Laboratory (AFAL). It was used as part of a project to develop new techniques for detecting satellites with electronic imaging devices, which were eventually to replace

Project Space Track Project Space Track was a research and development project of the US Air Force, to create a tracking system for all artificial satellites of the Earth and space probes, domestic and foreign. Project Space Track was started in 1957 at the Air For ...

's Baker-Nunn photographic system. From 1995 to 2002, the facility was known as the NASA Orbital Debris Observatory and hosted two telescopes funded and operated by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

History

The site near Cloudcroft was selected by AFAL in 1961 after several months of site characterization, and construction began in 1962. The First light of the Electro-Optical Surveillance Telescope (EOST) was achieved in 1964. The device was a

Newtonian telescope The Newtonian telescope, also called the Newtonian reflector or just a Newtonian, is a type of reflecting telescope invented by the English scientist Sir Isaac Newton, using a concave primary mirror and a flat diagonal secondary mirror. Newto ...

on a three-axis mount. The azimuth-elevation-azimuth configuration simplified tracking and allowed for good imaging of objects at the zenith. Aiming at poorly constrained targets was assisted by two small Naval sight guns placed in domes on opposite corners of the building. The first automated detection system, the FSR-2, was located at the site in the late 1960s in a separate building. It only operated for one year due to technical and financial reasons. AFAL continued Space Object Identification (SOI) research at Cloudcroft until 1975. At that time the facility was transferred to USAF

Space and Missile Systems Organization Space Systems Command (SSC) is the United States Space Force's research and development, space development, Military acquisition, acquisition, space launch, launch, and Military logistics, logistics field command. It is headquartered at Los An ...

(SAMSO). In the late 1970s, the facility came under the control of the Air Force Geophysical Laboratory, which contracted with Sacramento Peak Observatory to perform various research. Guest researchers also had the opportunity to use the facility. The facility was deactivated in 1982, and in the late 1980s the telescope was transferred to the

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...

Table Mountain Observatory Table Mountain Observatory (TMO) is an Observatory, astronomical observation facility operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (California Institute of Technology). It is located in Big Pines, California, in the Angeles National Forest near Wr ...

. In 1995,

began using the facility, which was renamed as NASA Orbital Debris Observatory. A liquid-mirror telescope was built in the main dome and operated from 1996 to 2001. The facility has since been disposed of by the government and is now owned by a private astronomical organization, the Tzec Maun Foundation. , a reflecting telescope was being tested in the main dome.

References

External links

NASA Orbital Debris Programs

Tzec Maun Foundation
{{Portal bar, Astronomy, Stars, Spaceflight, Outer space, Solar System, Education, Science Astronomical observatories in New Mexico Buildings and structures in Otero County, New Mexico Defunct astronomical observatories 1962 establishments in New Mexico

History

See also

References

External links