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Thread: Sunspot Observatory closed due to security issue

  1. #1

    Question Sunspot Observatory closed due to security issue

    SUNSPOT, NM – The Sunspot Observatory is temporarily closed due to a security issue at the facility that’s located 17 miles south of Cloudcroft in the Sacramento Mountains Friday, an Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) spokeswoman Shari Lifson said.
    “The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy who manages the facility is addressing a security issue at this time,” Lifson said. “We have decided to vacate the facility at this time as precautionary measure. It was our decision to evacuate the facility.”
    She said she cannot comment on the specifics of the security issue.


    The facility is the National Solar Observatory facility at Sacramento Peak that’s managed by AURA.
    Apache Point Observatory (APO) is currently in operation. APO was not evacuated. APO is about a mile away from Sunspot observatory.
    She said AURA does not have a comment about the type of security issue at this time.
    “I am actually not sure (when the facility was vacated) but it will stay vacated until further notice,” Lifson said. “It’s the people that vacated. At this time, it’s the facility that’s closed.”


    She said the facility is closed to the public and Sunspot employees.
    “We don’t know that yet (when the facility will open again),” Lifson said. “We are working with the proper authorities on this issues. The local authorities do know and are aware of the situation. I don’t know when the facility was vacated but it was within the last day. It’s a temporary evacuation of the facility. We open it up as soon as possible.”
    She said she cannot comment on whether the FBI was involved in the situation.
    Otero County Sheriff Benny House said the Otero County Sheriff’s Office was asked to standby.
    “The FBI is refusing to tell us what’s going on,” House said. “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.”
    He said he has a lot of unanswered question about what occurred at Sunspot.
    “But for the FBI to get involved that quick and be so secretive about it, there was a lot of stuff going on up there,” House said. “There was a Blackhawk helicopter, a bunch of people around antennas and work crews on towers but nobody would tell us anything.”

    More at: https://www.alamogordonews.com/story...ue/1227788002/
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

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  3. #2
    Deep State communication facility?

  4. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by timosman View Post
    Deep State communication facility?
    That occurred to me.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    That occurred to me.
    There has to be more.

  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by timosman View Post
    There has to be more.
    In the rest of the article the local sheriff says he took his deputies and left when nobody would tell them what was wrong.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  7. #6
    This is pretty damned bizarre. What could possible be happening at an observatory that would require the black helicopter treatment and rapid FBI response?

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    In the rest of the article the local sheriff says he took his deputies and left when nobody would tell them what was wrong.
    We are just rounding them up.

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by thoughtomator View Post
    This is pretty damned bizarre. What could possible be happening at an observatory that would require the black helicopter treatment and rapid FBI response?
    It may not be just an observatory.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment



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  11. #9
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunspo...al_information

    In 2018, the scientific research and public outreach at the Observatory was taken over by New Mexico State University.
    Related?

  12. #10
    I think it might be something due to the nearby post office which was evacuated and closed at the same time . The postal employees were not told why . The Otero county sheriff dept was not involved in the investigation . The Observatory and Post Office were still taped off with caution tape Fri afternoon . ( KVIA 7 News ) I dunno if they reopened today . There are rumors they have a little display set up for the public but it is not said to be very interesting .
    Last edited by oyarde; 09-10-2018 at 09:03 PM.
    Do something Danke

  13. #11
    “…let us teach them that all who draw breath are of equal worth, and that those who seek to press heel upon the throat of liberty, will fall to the cry of FREEDOM!!!” – Spartacus, War of the Damned

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  14. #12
    Do ya suppose it could be a data security issue and related to what's going on in this thread?
    http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...ly-Cold-Winter

    Maybe they are trying to keep something quiet.

  15. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Dr.3D View Post
    Do ya suppose it could be a data security issue and related to what's going on in this thread?
    http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...ly-Cold-Winter

    Maybe they are trying to keep something quiet.
    Good thinking, but why would the local Post Office be involved?
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  16. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    Good thinking, but why would the local Post Office be involved?
    Mailboxes?

  17. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    Good thinking, but why would the local Post Office be involved?
    Maybe they are worried somebody will try to mail the stolen data.

  18. #16
    he 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.

    More at: https://www.kvia.com/news/top-storie...tery/793035021
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment



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  20. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Dr.3D View Post
    Do ya suppose it could be a data security issue and related to what's going on in this thread?
    http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...ly-Cold-Winter

    Maybe they are trying to keep something quiet.
    Yea, that was my thought.

    Perhaps certain data, about what actually causes temperature fluctuation on Earth, are inconvenient truths for certain people.

    ...probably a simpler explanation, but the sunspot issue is interesting in its own right.

  21. #18
    All of which would be odd enough, but as SHTFplan.com's Mac Slavo details below, the observatory is closed just as a massive hole has opened up in the Sun’s corona, which means we’re officially on watch for a geomagnetic storm. Auroras will be likely across much of North America as the sun heads into a solar minimum.

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has issued a storm watch for a G2-level solar storm on September 11.
    That’s a moderate storm on the 5-level scale, with G5 being the highest, according to Science Alert. We’re currently heading into a solar minimum, the least active period of the Sun’s 11-year cycle. That means there will be a much lower sunspot, coronal mass ejection, and solar flare activity.

    If you are one of those who loves seeing the aurora borealis or the “Northern Lights,” have your camera handy, because it could be a beautiful show. As the holes open up in the Sun’s corona, although these are cooler, less dense regions of plasma in the Sun’s atmosphere, they are also more dramatic with open magnetic fields. These open regions allow the solar winds to escape the Sun’s surface more easily, blowing electromagnetic radiation into space at high speeds. If Earth is in the way of those solar winds, we could experience some intense outcomes.
    While the effects of this wind will be slightly stronger than those of a G1 storm, according to Science Alert, they’ll probably pass most of us by. High-latitude power systems may experience voltage alarms due to surges from geomagnetically induced currents, and longer storms can cause transformer damage, but it looks like this storm will be a relatively short one. According to the British Met Office, the solar winds could travel at speeds of up to 600 kilometers per second (372 miles per second) in the next two days.
    Spacecraft operations may be affected as the storm impedes GPS, which means corrections may need to be issued by ground control. And high-frequency radio propagation can fade at high latitudes.
    The biggest effect will probably be the light show since the solar winds are responsible for auroras. As they blow in from space, they interact with charged particles (mainly protons and electrons) in our magnetosphere.
    These charged particles then rain into the ionosphere and travel along the planet’s magnetic field lines to the poles, where interactions with other particles, such as oxygen and nitrogen, manifest as dancing lights in the sky. –Science Alert
    According to a map released by NOAA, the auroras resulting from this storm will likely be visible from Alaska, as well as the states across the United States’s Northern border with Canada and as far south as Iowa and Illinois. There will also be aurora australis visible from Antarctica.

    * * *
    Just in case you were blowing off the tin-foil-hat views of the observatory closure, we note that all these solar/space cams down at the same time:





    More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...ic-storm-looms
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  22. #19

    What is going on with the National Solar Observatory?

    I'm surprised I haven't seen this here, its been ongoing since last week.
    In short: last week the fbi showed up at the National Solar Observatory, closed it down, kicked out all the employees and even closed the post office. And they have had it on lock down ever since with no explanation other than "national security".
    wtf is going on there?

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/weird...-new-mexico-NM

    SUPER solar flare to WIPE OUT humanity, theorists fear after solar observatory shut down
    THE National Solar Observatory shut down has some fearing the sun’s activity is much worse than experts are letting on.

    The FBI swooped on the National Solar Observatory last Thursday, closing it down to employees and the public without explanation.
    The official line given was “security reasons” but local law enforcement in Sunspot, New Mexico, and workers at the the observatory have no idea what is going on.
    With no authoritative word as to what is happening, the internet is mustering its own theories and some believe it is to do with an impending solar storm.
    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a storm watch for a G2-level solar storm on September 11, just days after the NSO was closed.

    This has led to conspiracy theorists believing a ‘SUPER FLARE’ is on its way which could wipe out humanity and the FBI is not revealing this as they do not want the public to panic.
    One person wrote on public talk board 4Chan: “Forums are talking about it being a ‘super-flare’ strong enough to turn the surface of the planet into an uninhabitable wasteland.
    “Either we'll have a press conference this week, or rich people are going to start ‘disappearing’ quietly.”
    Another person added: “A big enough solar flare from our sun could wipe us out. Probably just as likely as an asteroid.

    “There are so many threats out there and we are probably past due for a mass extinction event. “
    Regular solar storms blast radiation in all directions from the sun, some of which hits the outer atmosphere of Earth, causing it to heat up and expand.
    This means satellite signals would struggle to penetrate the swollen atmosphere, leading to a lack of internet service, GPS navigation, satellite TV such as Sky and mobile phone signal.
    However, if a solar flare is strong enough, the radiation which hits our planet would be the equivalent to a global nuclear bomb.

    But, as many people on the forum point out, there are several solar observatories around the globe, so it would be unlikely that only the NSO spotted a dangerous solar flare.
    As a result, the mystery rages on with no sign of slowing up until the FBI makes an official announcement.
    The post office in Sunspot has been closed until further notice with a spokesman for the United States Postal Service telling ABC 7: "We were told on September 6 that we would be evacuated along with the surrounding area, we were not told why.
    "We were told just to be out of the area. We remain suspended until we are allowed to return.”

    Otero County Sheriff, Benny House, said: “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.”
    more articles:
    https://www.bing.com/news/search?q=s...ry+helicopters

  23. #20

  24. #21
    thanks, dunno why that wasn't showing up in my search

  25. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by specsaregood View Post
    thanks, dunno why that wasn't showing up in my search
    It's the approaching alien spacecraft that is disrupting the search engines.

  26. #23
    So, if it was the FBI that shut it down, it's probably for financial reasons or some other illegal activity that deemed it part of a crime scene. I mean, the reasons are limitless and it's useless to speculate. Perhaps one of the employees was on a list of people who received a phone call from suspect they've been tracking??? Maybe someone sent a suspicious package to the site?? Best not to jump to conclusions.

    I'd be more concerned if it was the NSA, the military, or some other alphabet soup agency.
    "And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat

    "It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire

  27. #24
    The .gov is always finding new ways to look up uranus



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  29. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by unconsious767 View Post
    The .gov is always finding new ways to look up uranus
    You've been waiting a long time to make that comment.
    "The Patriarch"

  30. #26
    File this under interesting and keep an eye out
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  31. #27
    Observatory probably received a package in the mail that contained a white powder and then someone felt sick. Hit the panic button.
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  32. #28
    Despite unusually high sunspot activity during an otherwise quiet period and a minor CME ejection which hit Earth last week, it appears that threat has passed, for now - as a CME takes anywhere from one to three days to hit, which brings us back to aliens and other theories. It doesn't help that several public solar observatory cams have gone offline, including NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) which will be offline "for several weeks" in order to update the "code infrastructure that provides access to SOHO data."

    Others have pointed to the fact that NASA launched a new solar probe last month - the first-ever mission to "touch" the sun, while the space agency will (or has) shot it's Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI) 190 miles into space for a 15-minute "peek" at the sun.
    The FOXSI mission will take its third flight from the White Sands Missile Range in White Sands, New Mexico, no earlier than September 7, the agency said in a statement. Derived from the nautical term "to sound", meaning to measure, FOXSI rockets make brief 15-minute journeys above the Earth's atmosphere for a peek at space before falling back to the ground. -TimesNowNews

    One reader who wishes to remain anonymous has a few theories, including why other solar observatories around the world haven't been raided and locked down:
    The many thousands of telescopes world wide are normally looking at the night sky, not at the sun. Additionally, most telescopes are looking at things at distances of 100,000's of light years. They won't "see" a UFO hovering right if front of them, or even a few light minutes away. Only solar scopes are looking at as short a distance as 8 light minutes.
    The FBI swooping in on a Blackhawk means that "time" was a factor in the "effectiveness" of their response.
    That the FBI shut down the post office is really interesting. Makes me think someone (unidentified) was trying to get the word out, about something, and the FBI was called in to rapidly shut down efforts to communicate beyond the observatory. Shut down the post office and check all the mail, shut down RF comms (guys on the antenna) and go over the facility with a fine tooth comb to find any memory stick or any "virus" program hiding in a computer somewhere ready to send data out to the web when reactivated.
    It also wouldn't surprise me to learn that every solar observatory in the world has someone, like their director, who's job is to erase such data. What would it look (to the outside world) like if this designated person at Sunspot AZ contacted the "authorities" and said "we got a 'rogue' trying to get the word out, I need help to shut this thing down"?
    How about this: what if data collected from the preeminent solar telescope did show we're heading into a Maunder Minimum; mini ice-age for next 100 years or so? I just read before this FBI episode that solar astronomers had discovered a new solar feature deep in the Sun. Don't remember the details, something about a new, big convection cell or something.
    What are the locals saying?

    ABC-7 Monday spoke with Shari Lifson, who is with AURA, the company that co-manages the Observatory with NMSU.
    “The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy who manages the facility is addressing a security issue at this time. We have decided to vacate the facility at this time as precautionary measure. It was our decision to evacuate the facility.”
    Lifson told ABC 7 there is no timetable for the Observatory to be re-opened.
    ABC-7 also reached out to the FBI, but did not hear back from the federal agency in time for the deadline. The FBI did speak with local law enforcement about the length of the observatory closure.

    More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...s-missile-base
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  33. #29

    2 hours ago

    (Edited)
    White Sands Missile Range is testing new weapons. When the F-117 was stationed at White Sands, one was not allowed to look at it. It flew at night, but in the day it was in hangars.
    Many weapons systems were and are tested at White Sands. It could be the new hypersonic bomber or a new hypersonic missile.
    At the elevation of Sunspot, the extremist of the FBI most likely believe it's a national security issue to shut down an observatory with sophisticated cameras.
    If this is the case, we will never be told why.
    Note: when I was a young man, I was on the GPS R&D team testing GPS for ICBM guidance at White Sands. Another time, I was on a Lance missile shoot for NATO nations to demonstrate and/or purchase Lance missile.
    If a missile needs to be tested, then it's White Sands Missile Range.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  34. #30
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

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