Photo-Optics in the Southern ocky Mountain egion

The Southern Rocky Mountain Region of the United States is not a newcomer to the world of photo-optics. Early work at Flagstaff, Arizona, led to the detection of the outermost planet, Pluto, by Dr. Clyde W. Tombaugh. Rocketry experiments in the 1920s by Dr. Robert Goddard near Roswell, New Mexico, spawned the need for optical tracking instruments to record for later study the performance of extrater-restrial vehicles in flight. The first photographs from space which demonstrated earth curvature were made at White, Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico, in the 1940s. Today, a compilation of significant, discretely separate installations and activities in the geographic area would be a major effort.