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Background

The Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy (CASA) was formed in 1985, as a breakaway from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). LASP itself was (and is) affiliated with the Astrophysics and Planetary Science (APS) department.

APS (in another name; see below) was formed it in 1960 by people in the High Altitude Observatory (HAO), founded in 1945. Walter Orr Roberts, founder of HAO, came here from Harvard to study the solar corona from a high mountain, which are common here (this is near Leadville). Walt was a science expert in atmospheric, geological, and astronomical sciences. He started a department here at CU in 1960, which combined all the three sciences (plus plasma physics, to study the solar corona and Earth’s high atmosphere): the Astro-Geophysics Department (A-G). Also in 1960, the National Center for Atmospheric research (NCAR) was placed in Boulder, and HAO became part of NCAR. Roberts was the first director of NCAR.

HAO built its own instruments, and needed some place other that its mountain observatory to make them, and settled on the CU campus in 1946, where a new building was placed near the law school. The HAO astronomy library was said t