GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — If a satellite, an asteroid or an old, dead rocket hurtles toward Earth, a telescope installed on Purdy Mesa is ready to help detect it and alert officials from around the world.

Installers used a crane to carefully hoist the 200-pound high-powered equipment into its new home at the Grand Mesa Observatory, where it will provide a gateway to the cosmos, emerging at night from under its dome to view the heavens.

The newest site joining the U.S. Air Force's Falcon telescope network is located under the dark skies just east of Whitewater, away from light pollution and...