Nat. Solar Observatory evac mystery

Some intriguing and rather unsettling new theories have been suggested for why the National Solar Observatory in New Mexico was suddenly evacuated and closed last week. Conspiracy theorists and curious local residents have been buzzing about the bizarre incident for the last few days as details surrounding why, exactly, the facility was shuttered remain scant at best. And, as word spread online about the mysterious closure, some prosaic, albeit unnerving, possibilities have been put forward to explain what may be happening in the town of Sunspot.

Perhaps the most promising suggestion comes from the website The Drive, which notes that the National Solar Observatory "enjoys a wide and largely unobstructed view of both the U.S. Air Force's Holloman Air Force Base and the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range." As such, they posit that perhaps the situation at the site involves espionage in the form of some kind of technology surreptitiously installed on one of the antennas as the observatory and aimed at those sensitive installations which sit in an adjacent valley. This, they say, would explain why the local sheriff saw FBI agents examining high altitude areas of the facility.

Meanwhile, another opinion which may have merit is that the closure could be related to a large vat of liquid mercury which sits below a massive solar telescope at the site and is used in the operation of the device. Reasons why the considerable amount of liquid metal could have caught the attention of authorities is that there might have been some kind of spill of the material or even an attempt to harness it as a weapon. However, since the sheriff did not report seeing anyone wearing protective gear, it would seem to suggest that an ongoing environmental hazard is not involved in the issue.

For their part, the evacuated staff from the observatory have done their best to dispel some of the more outlandish rumors surrounding the site's closure. The facility director, James McAteer, assured a local news station that the telescope "did not see aliens." He also promised that, when it comes to information collected by the observatory, "nothing is hidden or kept secret" and that "all data will be made public in its unaltered form" once the kerfuffle has been resolved. To that end, he mused that "my feeling is it’s going to be something stupid and small and minuscule when it’s all said and done." Considering that all of the theories we've seen floated online so far have been fairly worrisome to various degrees, we sincerely hope he is correct.

Intriguing New Theories Offered for Solar Observatory Closure - Coast to Coast AM
 
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Some intriguing and rather unsettling new theories have been suggested for why the National Solar Observatory in New Mexico was suddenly evacuated and closed last week. Conspiracy theorists and curious local residents have been buzzing about the bizarre incident for the last few days as details surrounding why, exactly, the facility was shuttered remain scant at best. And, as word spread online about the mysterious closure, some prosaic, albeit unnerving, possibilities have been put forward to explain what may be happening in the town of Sunspot.

Perhaps the most promising suggestion comes from the website The Drive, which notes that the National Solar Observatory "enjoys a wide and largely unobstructed view of both the U.S. Air Force's Holloman Air Force Base and the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range." As such, they posit that perhaps the situation at the site involves espionage in the form of some kind of technology surreptitiously installed on one of the antennas as the observatory and aimed at those sensitive installations which sit in an adjacent valley. This, they say, would explain why the local sheriff saw FBI agents examining high altitude areas of the facility.

Meanwhile, another opinion which may have merit is that the closure could be related to a large vat of liquid mercury which sits below a massive solar telescope at the site and is used in the operation of the device. Reasons why the considerable amount of liquid metal could have caught the attention of authorities is that there might have been some kind of spill of the material or even an attempt to harness it as a weapon. However, since the sheriff did not report seeing anyone wearing protective gear, it would seem to suggest that an ongoing environmental hazard is not involved in the issue.

For their part, the evacuated staff from the observatory have done their best to dispel some of the more outlandish rumors surrounding the site's closure. The facility director, James McAteer, assured a local news station that the telescope "did not see aliens." He also promised that, when it comes to information collected by the observatory, "nothing is hidden or kept secret" and that "all data will be made public in its unaltered form" once the kerfuffle has been resolved. To that end, he mused that "my feeling is it’s going to be something stupid and small and minuscule when it’s all said and done." Considering that all of the theories we've seen floated online so far have been fairly worrisome to various degrees, we sincerely hope he is correct.

Intriguing New Theories Offered for Solar Observatory Closure - Coast to Coast AM

The first theory is similar to what I speculated yesterday afternoon, and we had discussed the idea of a chemical/environmental issue a few days back. If it were the latter, besides the lack of chem/bio gear mentioned, it's hard to believe the facility would be left totally wide open with no security at all if there was a hazard. We saw the video you posted yesterday where the guy and his son just walked in like they owned the place, nothing but a stop sign and a strip of yellow law enforcement tape to deter them. The drone was curious, however. As for weaponizing mercury, not sure how that would be done.
 
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Jimmy Church interview

Interesting interview, although I don't think we learned anything that couldn't have been gleaned just watching the video. A few points:

1) I wonder if the housing at the facility has been boarded up for sometime, or just in the past week or so as the interviewee inferred? I would bet it's the former.

2) I would like to have heard more about the "government licence plates" the interviewee claimed to have seen on a few automobiles left at NSO. NM state government plates? A specific federal agency plate? GSA pool cars?

3) Very disappointed Church didn't ask the guy about the drone he claimed overflew him soon after he and his son entered the compound. Would be interesting to know if it was being used by authorities to keep an eye on the installation, or just someone who wanted to have a look around but didn't want to trespass onto the property?
 
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New Mexico observatory closed for 'security issue' to reopen

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – An observatory in the mountains of southern New Mexico that had been closed since early September because of an undisclosed security concern is now scheduled to reopen on Monday, officials managing the facility said.

The Sunspot Solar Observatory no longer faces a security threat to staff, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy said in a statement Sunday. The facility closed on Sept. 6.

The association has hired a temporary security team to patrol the observatory when it reopens. "Given the significant amount of publicity the temporary closure has generated, and the consequent expectation of an unusual number of visitors to the site, we are temporarily engaging a security service while the facility returns to a normal working environment," the association said.

Authorities have not revealed the nature of the security threat the observatory faced. The FBI has referred all questions to the association.

"We recognize that the lack of communications while the facility was vacated was concerning and frustrating for some. However, our desire to provide additional information had to be balanced against the risk that, if spread at the time, the news would alert the suspect and impede the law enforcement investigation. That was a risk we could not take," the association said.

Located atop Sacramento Peak, the observatory was established in 1947.

It overlooks the Tularosa Basin -- an expanse of desert that includes the city of Alamogordo, Holloman Air Force Base, White Sands Missile Range, White Sands National Monument and the site of the world's first atomic bomb test.

The telescope at Sunspot was originally built by the U.S. Air Force. After several years of operation, it was transferred to the National Solar Observatory, which is part of the National Science Foundation.

New Mexico State University in 2016 launched an initiative funded by the foundation to upgrade and update the facility through the newly formed Sunspot Solar Observatory Consortium.

Officials said Sunspot's one-of-a-kind telescope produces some of the sharpest images of the sun available in the world. Data from observations done at Sunspot is sent to New Mexico State University servers and can be used by researchers around the world.
 
New Mexico observatory closed for 'security issue' to reopen

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – An observatory in the mountains of southern New Mexico that had been closed since early September because of an undisclosed security concern is now scheduled to reopen on Monday, officials managing the facility said.

The Sunspot Solar Observatory no longer faces a security threat to staff, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy said in a statement Sunday. The facility closed on Sept. 6.

The association has hired a temporary security team to patrol the observatory when it reopens. "Given the significant amount of publicity the temporary closure has generated, and the consequent expectation of an unusual number of visitors to the site, we are temporarily engaging a security service while the facility returns to a normal working environment," the association said.

Authorities have not revealed the nature of the security threat the observatory faced. The FBI has referred all questions to the association.

"We recognize that the lack of communications while the facility was vacated was concerning and frustrating for some. However, our desire to provide additional information had to be balanced against the risk that, if spread at the time, the news would alert the suspect and impede the law enforcement investigation. That was a risk we could not take," the association said.

Located atop Sacramento Peak, the observatory was established in 1947.

It overlooks the Tularosa Basin -- an expanse of desert that includes the city of Alamogordo, Holloman Air Force Base, White Sands Missile Range, White Sands National Monument and the site of the world's first atomic bomb test.

The telescope at Sunspot was originally built by the U.S. Air Force. After several years of operation, it was transferred to the National Solar Observatory, which is part of the National Science Foundation.

New Mexico State University in 2016 launched an initiative funded by the foundation to upgrade and update the facility through the newly formed Sunspot Solar Observatory Consortium.

Officials said Sunspot's one-of-a-kind telescope produces some of the sharpest images of the sun available in the world. Data from observations done at Sunspot is sent to New Mexico State University servers and can be used by researchers around the world.
so, has anyone, ("the suspect") been taken into custody?....just what was someone up to and how serious was it?.... if we could find out who got the security contract it would tell a lot about the seriousness of this offence.... if its just a routine security co. then not to big a deal, if its a gov. affiliated security team, (blackwater or such) then this may be a really serious situation.
 
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So far, that's what I got. Gonna look some more.
 
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The association also for the first time provided some details about why the observatory had to be closed, saying in a statement that officials had been cooperating with an inquiry of criminal activity in the area and “became concerned that a suspect in the investigation potentially posed a threat to the safety of local staff and residents.”