UPDATE 9/12/18 4PM PST The issue may be related to Mercury (the metal, not the planet). On a tip from a science journalist friend who covers telescopes and who has been there, I verified the observatory uses a vat of liquid mercury as a float bearing for the giant solar telescope. According to an internal NSO/NMSU document, that bearing is “high-risk” during maintenance. If there was a major mercury spill, it might explain why the Feds are there, with FBI providing security. The amount of Mercury is said to be in the “tens of gallons” range, which is next to impossible to come by in the commercial market these days, and if it were weaponized, it would make a very nasty dirty bomb. Perhaps there’s some security issue with the mercury on-site.
Also, the observatory is in transition, with it’s management shifting to New Mexico State University:
As part of the restructuring connected to the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKI), the National Solar Observatory (NSO) will leave the Sunspot site in October 2017. However NSF, NSO, and the larger solar physics community in USA see extended scientific, educational, instrumentation and public outreach advantages in maintaining, simplifying, and upgrading, certain aspects of the telescope and the site of Sunspot. As such, the New Mexico State University (NMSU) are leading a national effort to form and lead a Sunspot Solar Observatory Consortium (SSOC) to maintain the operations of the Dunn Solar Telescope (DST) and Sunspot site for a minimum 5 year span beyond Oct 2017.
Maybe there’s been an issue during the transition.. – Anthony
Solar telescope facility, and nearby U.S. Post Office shut down – Blackhawk helicopters seen on site
This is weird. The National Solar Observatory has a singular mission, or so we’re told:
The mission of the National Solar Observatory is to advance knowledge of the Sun, both as an astronomical object and as the dominant external influence on Earth, by providing forefront observational opportunities to the research community. The mission includes the operation of cutting edge facilities, the continued development of advanced instrumentation both in-house and through partnerships, conducting solar research, and educational and public outreach.
It’s been closed by the FBI for “security reasons” and there’s no mention of the closure on the NSO website. Not even in their news feed. Even local authorities are baffled. What could possibly be going on there that would require such a secretive response by the FBI? Some sort of suspicious package at the post office? Spies? Something they spotted with the telescope that it too explosive for the public to know about?
From a variety of wire and TV news sources. h/t to Dennis Wingo
The mysterious and sudden closure of the National Solar Observatory in New Mexico is sending alien hunters into a frenzy as the facility remains shut without explanation. The research institute in Sunspot was evacuated last Thursday along with a nearby United States Postal Service office for unexplained ‘security reasons.’
A spokesperson for the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) which manages the observatory said the evacuation was a precautionary measure due to a security issue. “It was our decision to evacuate the facility,”spokeswoman Shari Lifson added.
A statement made by the Otero County Sheriff, Benny House, to Alamogordo Daily News in the aftermath of the announcement has contributed to intense speculation around the incident, however. House said that they were asked to standby but given no further information.
“The FBI is refusing to tell us what’s going on. We’ve got people up there (at Sunspot) that requested us to standby while they evacuate it. Nobody would really elaborate on any of the circumstances as to why. The FBI were up there. What their purpose was nobody will say.”
The sheriff also claimed there was a Blackhawk helicopter at the site and work crews on towers and around antennas
Source: RT
From KVIA-TV :
SUNSPOT, New Mexico – The National Solar Observatory in Sunspot New Mexico has been closed since last Thursday.
The post office near Sunspot also remains closed. Its employees have been temporarily transferred to the post office in Cloudcroft, a USPS official told ABC-7.
ABC-7 has confirmed the post office in Sunspot will not be re-opened until further notice, and cannot be re-opened until approved by local law enforcement officials.
ABC-7 Monday spoke with Shari Lifson, who is with Aura, the company that co-manages the Observatory with NMSU. Lifson told ABC 7 there is no time-table for the Observatory to be re-opened.
ABC-7 also reached out the FBI, but did not hear back from the federal agency in time for deadline. The FBI did speak with local law enforcement about the length of the observatory closure.
“They spoke with my sergeant initially and they said that they would be down for a few days so that could be anywhere from a few days to months, from my past experience,” said Sheriff Benny House.
The FBI did not tell Sheriff House the reason for the closure.
Sheriff Benny House did tell ABC 7 that his local law enforcement did not have anything to do with either the observatory closure, or the Sunspot post office Closure.
A spokesperson for the United States Postal Service told ABC 7 that they were given specific instructions. “We were told on September 6th that we would be evacuated along with the surrounding area, we were not told why,” Rod Sturgeon said, “We were told just to be out of the area.”
More here
UPDATE: A few minutes after publication, the photo was corrected to show the Dunn Solar Telescope at the Sacramento Peak NSO facility.
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Anthrax scare?
Or the observatory caught something from White Sands.
this is likely a pre-emptive sort of action. as in something set/scheduled to occur.
If there are parties really interested, I’d suggest they go to Look-out Mountain, NM and camp-out with binoculars or long range telephoto cameras. Any test would likely be at night so a long-wave IR FLIR would be helpful if you’ve got an extra $50K to throw around.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lookout+Mountain/@33.3438677,-105.8057489,11.51z
Close to what some people are saying. One theory says, Chinese spies were able to set up equipment there and used it to spy on White Sands missile test site. Another says, mercury leaked there and also at the post office.
Will we ever find out the truth?
If the FIB is involved, no. This would be over-reaction for Merucry, even with chemophobic hysteria.
There is very little wrong with mercury provided it is sensibly looked after and the area where it is exposed to air is ventilated
if any of your govvy alphabets are…then no.
Im wondering if it might have something to do with trying to adjust things?
ie the new russian sats theyre stressing over? trying to track it..
dunno woulda thunk it could be done very quietly and not being so over the top about it .
Will we ever find out the truth?
The Truth is out there….
Nah, John Podesta was caught there after Hillary beamed him down.
You shoulda seen who was also in the landing party with him!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_ORixZe68c
I think I’d like to go to the moon…
I had a brief discussion online with a retired astronomer/astro physicist, who said the same thing happened at the house across the street from her and her husband’s house a couple of years ago. People would come and go all hours of the night – NOT daytime – and one day, the house was surrounded by FBI agents and vans and the residents were removed from that house. All that she could get out the FBIers was a security threat.
The date coincided with 9/11, as did this event this year at the Sunspot National Observatory. If anything, she said, some grad student’s background raised eyebrows ( and doubts) and the ‘security issues’ most likely were related to the anniversary of 9/11/01.
That makes sense, and of the other observatories reported as offline. construction of some were not finished, and others were likely under maintenance or had received some kind of threat, too, related to the anniversary of 9/11/01.
You can do what you like with this information, but it at least makes sense, although the activity does also coincide with those joint military exercises.
Two Post Offices…the one the Cloudcroft is closed too
If the Cloudcroft PO is closed, that should rule out Mercury.
On the other side of the solar system, I heard that people are having second thoughts about making Pluto be a dwarf planet. Perhaps someone mailed a document about Pluto and auto-correct changed it to Plutonium.
Not true…
Naahh! Youse guys got it all wrong!
It’s been 41 years since the “wow” signal erupted and then was abruptly shut off, like someone hit a switch. Came from the Teapot region of Sagittarius.
But I know what REALLY happened. A passenger starship located in a system somewhere in UGC6093 in the general direction of Leo was attacked, and the crew (all but two) were turned into sandwiches by the Space Aliens who look like geckos with big teeth. The remaining two crew members sent out the ‘wow’ signal to get help and the only reason it ended up being caught by the Big Ear in 1977 at OSU is that it bounced off a rocky moon orbiting a planet in the general direction of the Teapot. Unfortunately, the ‘wow’ signal wasn’t picked up again because that rocky moon moved and Earth wasn’t triangulating with it. And anyway, it kept bouncing off Pluto and our Moon. But it was a repeating signal and this time, the Solar Telescope picked it up. Now the Feebies and those other guys are worried that the geckos will come here and make sandwiches out of us humans.
That’s why they chased everyone out of the observatory.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Based on what you’ve written, you defiantly need to pump your husband/boyfriend with a large dose of sildenafil citrate and enjoy its effect.
“Defiantly” ???
Well at least it wasn’t “Deniantly”.
The “Lizard People” are returning for lunch? I thought they were here now!
cant uptick more than one
but i rated that a definite 10;-)
Mmmmm…sandwiches!
I’m not saying it’s aliens.
But it’s aliens.
The kind from outer space or the other kind?
lol! I should have read through first!
Someone should ask Border Control that question as the FBI clearly won’t come clean!
Aliens that eat mercury for breakfast!
Oh, and people too…..
Cue the ‘Outer Limits’ theme song.
“We will control all that you see and hear.”
Jim
X-Files would probably be more appropriate 🙂
there was a video of a guy having a look, and in one of the bins an X-Files game is poking out…
https://youtu.be/_AVdVBvSjcU?t=600
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_X-Files:_Unrestricted_Access made it to wikipedia already!
Bomb scare?
Tom
Most likely. The terrorists have been confined largely to driving cars and vans into crowds and stabbing people. At least in the UK, and largely thanks to the unacknowledged efforts of our global security forces.
Probably a parcel bomb intercepted at the PO destined for an ‘obscure’ but important target.
They’ve not been resorting to bombs because vans are much easier to come by and are proving to be quite effective. Not because they can’t make explosives.
NoDal
Their bomb making ‘factories’ keep getting found by the intelligence services, that’s why they have resorted to using vans. More effective to carry a small pipe bomb into a shopping mall than running people down with a van. Even more effective to fill a vehicle with explosives as the IRA were inclined to do, but they expose themselves by buying materials in the first place, so they don’t bother.
With two post offices closed and the observatory? I would think more likely a toxin, anthrax or Novichok or ?, addressed to someone at the observatory. The close way information is being held is not tyipcal of a bomb threat and no explosions were reported. In fact its really unusual. There are no attempts to score any political points nationally or internationally. The sheriff talked about crews running around the antennas and towers, which would not square with the toxin idea though. And why target an observatory?
Antennas? Perhaps HAARP was relocated there from Alaska and is messing around with Hurricane Florence. I better go see if there have been any odd changes to its track. 🙂
mercury fulminate risks mercury being stolen for its production
Maybe the security issue is it is exposing the TRUTH. Cannot have that.
Clearly someone on the staff voted for Trump and the place has been closed down until the culprit has been found and linked to Putin’s fiddling with the presidential election.
That was my thought, Mueller thinks there’s something there that links Trump to the Russians, perhaps a bottle of Russian salad dressing in the break room fridge.
Possibly the start of a distraction from the crisis for the FBI/DOJ caused by the mid-term elections and their desperation to keep people diverted from their attempts to subvert a duly elected President?
Possible. That thought came to mind as I read the post.
SOP Hantavirus/Orthohantavirus:
If the FBI shows up and tells you you have to get out of your home and go someplace for a month and won’t give you a reason, it’s virology under the authority of the CDC.
Everything else they’ll give you reasons for.
So, “Andromeda Strain”?
Boxes filled with voting ballots.
Maybe they found Hillary’s emails.
Nah, they were on a thumb drive in that football Putin handed to The Donald.
Heard of a bloke who’s exploits in Thailand earned him the nickname “Superstrain”
then why wouldnt the cdc do it themselves?
people would be happier knowing and happy to move fast if that was the case surely?
and theyd be wearing full body hazmats
no mention of anything like that
Whose security does exposing the truth threaten.
National
Michael Mann’s.
Discovering the secrets of the sun … or some other secrets… a little truth in the mission. It’s usually in plain sight.
Neutrons detected below instead of above or not from the Sun?
Flat earth. Couldn’t keep it hidden any longer. And aliens. Hundreds of them. All resembling Trump.
Better call Mulder and Scully.
Closed the Post Office too? Reminds me of the scene in MIB2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HgUh5bOgbM
Possibly the start of a distraction from the crisis for the FBI/DOJ caused by the mid-term elections and their desperation to keep people diverted from their attempts to subvert a duly elected President?
SteveT
maybe the FBI/DOJ circus is to distract from this situation.
And what about these sites? All offline? Solar conspiracy much? =)
http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/en/gallery/cloudcams/index.php?opts=still
http://www5.uhh.hawaii.edu/~webcam/mauna_kea/
As well as:
http://139.86.48.94/view/index.shtml
http://www.soartelescope.org/about-soar/webcams-1/
http://www.telescope.org/webcam-tn-nightskycam-i.php
http://www.jatobservatory.org/remotewebcam.html
All at the same time.
http://www5.uhh.hawaii.edu/~webcam/mauna_kea/ says its last photo was taken at 10:23:27 am, Wednesday, June 7, 2017 (HST). So whatever happened started over a year ago! Perhaps the wayback machine has the deleted photos. 🙂
Surmising this has nothing to do with the Sun. There are a number of sites doing similar observations. Nothing huge in the way of radio telescopes. If crews were seen working on radio antennas then it’s a fair assumption that is due to something local in the radio spectrum.
Sure, thats why NASA happened to shut off their stuff at the same time.
Letter with the fake sunspot data record handed to the Post Office.😀
LOL………
Maybe they need the power of the sun and scope to spot the consensus fairy?
Holloman AFB and White Sands is nearby.
Maybe some secret test of some new tech is about to happen, and they are making certain that there are no witnesses.
Maybe that is why there has been no talk of this on major news sites. I read from many different sites, and this was the first I heard of this story. Was it intentional to limit the distribution of this story so as to give the impression that there is something to hide when the story finally goes mainstream?
We’re all here because nothing escapes WUWT’s attention!
Because nobody expects WUWT!
I’m not sure I would compare WUWT with Monty Python’s view of the Spanish Inquisition–even in jest.
Jim
Sounds like a case for Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.
And here I am in North Wales and for about 2 hours this afternoon there has been extensive activity by at least 2 military jets circling round and round and at quite a height (can just make out the shape). Sound from the jets is extremely high level (have to raise voce to speak to my wife 5 feet away) and very low frequency rumble affecting the fabric of the cottage and rattling the roof tiles.
Now where we live (Herefordshire) we are used to seeing military jets training, they can fly quite low over our house sometimes less than 500 feet, so we know how much noise they can make compared to flying height. The experience today was VERY unusual, don’t know how they can make so much LF noise when at such a height.
Weird indeed.
Air combat manoeuvring. Get a lot of Typhoons doing it over me, next to a disused RAF base in Lincolnshire. Sometimes the Yanks have a couple of F15s playing too. High levels of LF noise when they use afterburners.
Seems logical, would explain 2 jets circling around.
There are joint exercises being held in the next few weeks during Norway. Those jets are probably part of that traffic. The USA has already deployed Marine Expeditionary Units (MEUs) to the AO. That’s no secret. Posted in military news last week.
Has to do with Russian/Chinese war games, and our response to them. Very annoying to the Russians, too. Vlad probably has his undies in a bunch that the USA is showing this kind of audacity.
That could be the reason for those jets you’re hearing.
In fact, if there are antennas and towers around this solar telescope, it may have something to do with the joint Russian/Chinese war games.
Man! I should not write stuff when I’m half awake!
“There are joint exercises being held in the next few weeks during Norway.” SHOULD READ “There are joint exercises being held DURING the next few weeks IN Norway.”
I will add here that the total troop census for those exercises numbers 30,000+, not including equipment and logistics support.
Whatever this is, I am very sure it has to do with the Chinese/Russian joint military exercises. Since the Feebies are involved in this “shutdown” and have mounted antennae around the observatory, they are setting up a listening post, possibly in anticipation of those joint China-Russia exercises.
There is also the possibility that there is a very real perceived threat of some ballistic rocketry POSSIBLY aimed in our general direction, the kind of rocketry that would have us doing “duck and cover” drills when I was in grade school. If that’s the case, and you didn’t grow up in the ear of the DEW system, consider this antennae/towers business a substitute for the old NORAD/DEW system, which was partly up in Alaska. They were warned about something, and want everyone who may be endangered by it out of the area.
History is your friend here. As much as I hate to squelch all the space aliens stuff, this activity coincides with the US military exercises in Norway, which are the US response to the China/Russia joint exercises. Why choose the solar scopes? Perfect reception area for those “ears” the Feebies are planting. White Sands is a missile testing range. It’s also a military base, as are Groom Lake and the nearest Texas/California/New Mexico bases. There is also the NORAD base at Minot, SD. They practice the 15-second minimum interval takeoffs routinely as well as “scrambles”.
Sorry, no space aliens this time, and no chemtrails, no giant alien space craft orbiting the Sun inside Mercury’s orbit, no “greys” or squishy wierd 2-leggers will show up, except for that guy who keeps bumming you for cash at the corner stoplight.
Yes, something is going on, but we won’t find out exactly what until these two sets of joint exercises are over.
My goodness gracious, there really isn’t any thing to see or worry about here, these aren’t the aliens you are looking for.
…*hand wave*…
Ha, you think there’s solar observing equipment in there?! Nah, this is clearly a case where an insider tried to reveal the REAL instrumentation in that building — a sun-powered death-ray weapon of mass destruction. They had to eliminate this threat to national security by closing the place down, while they investigate who this insider might have informed (local terrorists?, foreign governments?, ???). The whole program of alien solar death ray technology has now been exposed to risk, and the only way to put a lid on this threat is to shutt’er down, until a full security sweep can be conducted to weed out all possible contaminating influences.
When you propose a conspiracy theory, go big or go home. (^_^)
Probably something as mundane as rats — natural infestation?, … terrorist rat attack?, … prank? … That’s why the FBI is there — X files. The mind can go wild, and that’s the purpose of this post, right?
wait, is that a knock at your door….you’ve revealed too much, time to go dark!
There would be no knock, if I were on to something. Rather, my door simply would fly off its hinges from the battering ram impact of the FBI SWAT team. I hope the FBI has a sense of humor. Uh, … my computer screen just did a strange jiggle. (^_^)
My guess is it probably has to do with a DoD test of some new technology (stealth weapon, missile launch etc) at White Sands and/or Holloman AFB that would be visible from those locations.
See what I posted above about military exercises and war games. It’s possible that a threat was detected that would be hidden in the war games, e.g., a missile gone “off course”.
I kind of long for the days when things like the Minuteman missiles were buried in a circle around Lincoln, NE.
Sounds like a credible terrorist threat was uncovered.
and what evidence would support that conclusion?
See there, that’s proof! The complete lack of evidence is proof the Deep State has put a clampdown on ALL information! There’s nothing else that could possibly explain it! (And if you come up with a logical contradiction to this statement, that’s proof you’re part of the coverup!)
lol nice…
They are trying to protect Trump from being spied on again…..
Could be an OP underway by I.C.E. to round-up the illegals.
Someone’s been reading recent posts by Javier and others and realised that there is a credible alternative hypothesis to CO2 control of climate, namely a clear solar influence. So they now need to do to the solar and sunspot data the same thing that they’ve already done to ocean, land-atmosphere and palaeo climate data i.e. f*** it up.
The FIB will blame global warming on a single lone shooting star.