Solar Observatory Evacuated, FBI Involved, Sunspot, NM

There are solar telescopes all over the world, but the odds that a particular low orbit satellite (anything higher is unlikely to reveal detail) will transit from the perspective of a fixed telescope at a permanent observatory are relatively low. The corridor for such transits are very narrow. I've only ever seen ISS transits because I drove my telescope into the corridor. This site has some of the most powerful solar telescopes on earth and it's within the jurisdiction of the US, so it makes sense that they could be concerned about what it sees if a classified satellite transits. Plus the Dunn Solar Telescope has advanced adaptive optics that could end up revealing more detail than what most other solar telescopes could detect.

Just for fun I checked when the secret space shuttle X-37B (it's still up there) would transit the sun or moon from Sunspot NM given its current amateur-determined orbital elements. Nothing came up, even when I tried to predict it over the next two months, and as far back as August.

I also checked for several other satellites of interest, such as the Russian satellites that have been behaving weird. Cosmos 2521 was one of the ones involved with those Russian sat maneuvers ( [link to www.space.com (secure)] ) and appears to be set to cross the moon on Monday September 24th from Sunspot NM. If they're trying to get equipment in place to observe it they might need that kind of time, but that seems silly to give it away; a simple orbital maneuver by the Russians this far out wouldn't take much to render that transit invalid. Plus it's a lunar transit, not a solar transit. The scopes that are there aren't really designed for that. And not to play the "if I ran the zoo fallacy," but I would think they could get much better direct imaging of it from the nearby Starfire Optical Range at Kirtland AFB even when it's not transiting anything anyway.

Last Edited by Astromut on 09/11/2018 11:57 AM

Good pics, but that's not sunspot. I used to live in Cloudcroft, in Russia Canyon, right by sunspot.

Forgive me, but isn't this the entrance:
[link to ibb.co (secure)]
Or no?

It´s clear, that it doesn´t have anything to do woth the sun itself. The sun is observed all over the world.

with

The only way we're going to know anything, is if someone leaks out information on the particulars and even then, we'd have to doubt it because it could be misinformation to put us of track.

All we do know is that an event occurred at the solar observatory that caused the FBI to swoop in with supporting elements to shut the whole operation down without any reasonable explanation given. That's a red flag event either way one looks at it.

If they're hiding something from the general public, then it should not only give the general public pause, it should give cause for extreme concern.

I do support Dr. Astromut's theory on what may have taken place. It is logical.

Thanks Astro.
We are headed to war, seems. Or keeping secrets.

Could it be something as simple as a nutjob mailed a threat to the observatory so they shut down both the observatory and post office? But if that's the case then why all the secrecy? They're hot on the heels of the guy who did it and don't want him to know they're onto him? Still doesn't really explain why not just say what the security issue is. Or *tinfoil hat on* the "mailed threat" is the excuse they're trying to lay groundwork to use after their real objective is complete. I don't know, it's a weird story for sure. Real X-Files material.

done

well, the FBI doesn't know anything about Astronomy,
so, what could it be?

Yes sir it is. That IS the entrance into Sunspot which is no more than a tiny little community that is specifically there to house employees and as a tourist you cannot even go down the residential street. It is posted for residents only and to keep out.
I went on a tour of the grounds of the observatory just a couple of months ago. The gift shop and guided tours had just started back up from being closed for awhile. Although, the day I went, the woman who greeted us said that that day, they were unable to give a tour through the large telescope, that if we came back the next week, there would be someone to take us on the tour through the big telescope.We didn't make time to go back.
I know where Russia Canyon is as well, it is in the area. Been backroading out there alot.

If it's got something to do with a military satellite or other military operations, they'll have the military advising them about what they need to know.

Here's another thought I had, missile launches from White Sands are definitely visible there ( [link to sunspot.solar (secure)] ), what if a foreign spy was planted to work at Sunspot and secretly keep tabs on military operations out of White Sands and neighboring bases, mailing the info out of the post office to try to stay under the radar? Now they have to shut it down to ascertain what was compromised and for how long. Just another spitball thought.

earlier in the thread I looked up a few of the employees twitter and FB pages and there hadn't been any posts on a lot of accounts since Aug 31 to Sep 3. Before that, they were posting everyday.

Can you link some of them? That sounds like they're concerned about one of the employees or what one or more of them know or witnessed.

It was to keep spies or people from seeing something and only spying, war or space "something" could be why




I like that one tho - we are INFESTED with pakis and mozrats here

Forgot about fixed solar scopes and extremely narrow transit windows.
Did you have any more particulars about possible transits that would cause concern or were the ones you mentioned pretty much it.

Wow! Wonderful, thanks!

Here's one:

[link to twitter.com (secure)]

will keep trying to find the others...it seems a bit harder to find what I found before.

Wow, what a ding a ling I am! I forgot until just now about what the reasoning was that the tour through the big telescope couldn't be done that day. She told us that the scientists had been working nights on a project and that the next week they would be going back to days. So, working nights, not more than a couple of months ago, what was that project?

Well, that weekend was a holiday weekend. Perhaps they just had the weekend off, thus why no tweets.

I mean, if you want to get really wild with the "what if's," what if Zuma wasn't actually a failed mission and they're concerned about a transit they know will occur over that observatory. I don't think it's likely that Zuma's failure was a cover for a successful stealth mission, but it has been speculated as such. If that were the case there's no way for me to check on it since it's not been observed by an amateurs. I am interested in trying to do a complete search of all possible transits by all classified satellites that amateurs have data for. In fact I'm thinking I should look into writing a program to run that kind of search automatically, it could be useful in the future as well.

Does anyone else have a problem loading this, or is it just me?

[link to www4.nso.edu]

not giving me an error, just saying I am unable to connect, but all my other tabs open are working just fine.

Nothing for me either.

Edit: Says site can't be reached on Chrome.

Last Edited by Paranoiaaaaa on 09/11/2018 12:55 PM

Me neither.

I just tried it on Firefox, couldn't be reached there either.

all I did was a Google search for Sunspot New Mexico Observatory employees and it was the .edu link, second down. I had already been there, but I am finding links I visited yesterday and the day before, are not working anymore.

wtf

Sounds like a good plan.

How many observatories in the world are using spinning liquid mercury mirrors though?

I never even knew they existed. When I google it a New Scientist article from 2008 comes up saying they are now a reality at last.