Corralitos Observatory, in the Rough and Ready Hills west of Las Cruces, opened in 1965 as a remote station of Northwestern University’s Dearborn Observatory, with New Mexico State University students handling much of the daily work. It first focused on reports of transient lunar phenomena, but years of systematic watching did not confirm them. The observatory also tested advanced electronic imaging equipment, including a Schmidt camera developed for possible Apollo use. In the 1970s it hosted an early semi-automated supernova search that discovered ten supernovae. It also photographed key Apollo mission events before funding problems ended operations in 1978.