Sunspot Solar Observatory

In 2018, all scientific research and public outreach at the telescope facility was taken over by the Sunspot Solar Observatory and AURA remain the operator of infrastructure on the site, including maintenance.

The Sunspot Astronomy and Visitor Center provides an interactive astronomical experience through activities, displays, and informational exhibits.

The Visitor Center contains exhibits from the Dunn Solar Telescope, the Apache Point Observatory, and the Lincoln National Forest.

In 1940, the High Altitude Observatory (HAO) was established in 1940 in Climax, Colorado, by Walter Orr Roberts and Donald Menzel.

[1] Such studies of the upper atmosphere were critical for predicting conditions for radio communication, guided missiles, and supersonic aircraft and, as a result, solar observations "became essential to the war effort".

Roberts and Menzel examined the White Sands Proving Ground (an area used as a research rocket firing range near Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico).

By April 1948, the Committee on Geophysical Sciences (then within the War Department's Research and Development Board) formally accepted this recommendation and a contract was written, mandating the Air Force to complete the observatory.

The specifics of the contract called for "the preparation of detailed plans for an integrated solar research facility, which would combine observational, analytical, and data-reduction activities, all on a larger scale than at any comparable observatory; design, development, and fabrication of the required optical device; and concurrently, theoretical studies of solar structure and characteristics"[1] On the western side of the Sacramento peak,[5] there are wide open views of Apache Point Observatory and Sloan Digital Sky Survey telescopes.

On a clear day it is possible to see all the way south to the cities of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and all the way north to the Trinity test site.