Posted on 09/12/2018 9:54:20 PM PDT by House Atreides
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 theres some security issue with the mercury on-site.
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....
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(Excerpt) Read more at wattsupwiththat.com ...
“There really seems no end to the convoluted conspiracy theories on FR these days.
You know, there really are many honorable, highly competent and decent scientists in the world who do band together and collaborate in Associations, Institutions, etc. which are not performing weird, nefarious *stuff*...”
Well you will be very happy to know that it is going to reopen. But my goodness.....look what this ‘conspiracy theory’ employee had to say.........
“It really didn’t surprise me that FBI might be showing up someday, due to the things that have been going on at the site prior to the evacuation, said the Sunspot employee, who KOB is not naming on the basis of anonymity. “I have noticed that Sunspot is basically, what I would call, a breeding ground for crime.”
I’m sure he’s just a disgruntle employee. We certainly see the ‘honorable’ examples coming out of universities these days.
He seems to have been discussing trespassing, vandalism and theft due to poor security. That doesn’t mean he was suggesting that the academics were the ones perpetrating the crimes.
YOU don’t know what it means.
Does the military typically send black hawk helicopters for “trespassing, vandalism and theft due to poor security”?
I imagine it would depend on what kind of ‘theft’ or other illegal activity was taking place; and the employee’s statement could have been off the top of his head and irrelevant.
As others have suggested, it may have been some kind of spying or cyber crime going on or through there; which still doesn’t implicate AURA or academic associations like it.
“which still doesnt implicate AURA or academic associations like it”
It doesn’t NOT implicate them either. I don’t know what places you have worked but when enough ‘theft and trespassing’ happens that causes a place to be raided by the FBI with black hawk helicopters, evacuated and shut down, I would say the PEOPLE RUNNING IT have a SERIOUS problem with management incapabilities. Wouldn’t you agree? Or they know and are complicit.
BINGO!!
I had confused the L&C with the Colorado/Grand Canyon voyage of John Wesley Powell
Considering the location, it could be gun or drug running, coyotes - any number of things that have nothing to do with the facility.
But some of the other details we’ve heard suggest spying, or simply an upcoming secret test.
I suggest that we don’t know, and that we shouldn’t jump to conjecture about ‘conspiracy’ that casts a bad light on an entire research organization without any evidence.
I use to be naive like you a couple of decades ago.
LOL!
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