Sunspot Observatory closed due to security issue


At the (10.08 min.) mark in the video, the guy making the video zooms in on a DVD sitting in the trash near the window. The way it's positioned, it looks more like "a stage prop" - like someone deliberately put it there (for special effects)? I checked out a description of the DVD but I don't know, if it ties into anything going on at the Observatory? My impression - someone put it there to be funny? The guy does mention an odd strong smell/scent near that building but doesn't elaborate?

The DVD is: The X-files Unrestricted access.
The X-Files: Unrestricted Access

The X-Files: Unrestricted Access was released for Microsoft Windows on January 1, 1997. A version for Macintosh computers was released the following year.

The X-Files: Unrestricted Access is a 1997 video game developed by Fox Interactive and written by Richard Dowdy. It is a tie-in with the television series The X-Files. Unrestricted Access is an interactive database program, compiling information from the television series' first four seasons.

Released on January 1, 1997, the game was met with mostly positive reviews, with its attention to detail and aesthetics being seen as highlights; however its reliance on Internet Explorer 4 was seen a detraction.

Rather than a traditional video game, The X-Files: Unrestricted Access is an interactive database of information relating to the television series The X-Files. The game uses text, videos and images to offer information on the series' overarching mythology, as well as on its characters and individual episodes of the programme. The database holds entries on every episode broadcast up until the game's release—the first four seasons—and culls its information from these episodes.

The game was released on two CD-ROMs—the database itself was contained on the second of these, while the first disc was used to install both the program and the Internet Explorer 4 web browser, which was used to access in-game hyperlinks. In addition to the content within the database, Unrestricted Access also contained computer wallpaper and screensavers for use on the player's computer.


X-Files Unrestricted Access C/W95/Us Multimedia CD January, 1998 https://www.amazon.com/X-Files-Unrestricted-Access-W95-Us/dp/0767728416

The X-Files: Unrestricted Access includes everything you've ever wanted to know about The X-Files, all dressed up with a slick interface on two Windows 95 CD-ROMs. This encyclopedia of X-Files trivia allows you to look over photos, character dossiers, and video clips from the show--you can even set up a few X-Files screen savers. Best of all, the built-in update feature will download new content from the Internet, so you'll always have the latest X-Files information at hand. --Michael Ryan


So the official statement reads:

So apparently there was criminal activity going on from an unnamed suspect in the area and they shut down the observatory and evacuated the area because of it. "For the safety of the people there". Since they guy in the video in the linked article (and others who visited that place) said that pretty much everything is open there to walk into, the X-Files DVD could have been laid their intentionally into the bin by someone who wanted to stir up things. They say the secrecy was put into place to not disturb/alert the suspect.

The narrative they are promoting doesn't make much sense? If something happened inside the Observatory (criminal activity), what's the purpose in evacuating residents living near- by, that the Sheriff and FBI couldn't handle?

Now - "The Sunspot Solar Observatory is transitioning back to regular operations as of September 17th"?

OK - guess ... there is nothing to see here? Big-to-do about nothing?
 
Too much attention being done here. A collusion event to mask the real event. Pretty simple, evacuate, add one black helicopter, leave it mysterious. To me that indicates a look over here type scenario, pretty bluntly. I would say that if anything, do not look at this facility or the sun, because what you are not supposed to be looking at could be just over your shoulder, not what they are pointing to. Haiku …
Any and all possibilities, as usual.:cool2:
 
I don't think it is "too much attention" or a collusion event to mask anything. I think that something truly weird happened, they were caught having to do something fast, and then do damage control. The story they are putting out is so lame it hurts.
 
I don't think it is "too much attention" or a collusion event to mask anything. I think that something truly weird happened, they were caught having to do something fast, and then do damage control. The story they are putting out is so lame it hurts.

Yes, and hopefully someone will figure it out. Inquiring minds want to know!
 
Sept. 17, 2018 - Sunspot Observatory workers talk about evacuation, going back to work
Sunspot Observatory workers talk about evacuation, going back to work

SUNSPOT - The National Solar Observatory facility in Sunspot has reopened following an evacuation ordered by the FBI on Sept. 6.

“Everything’s back up and running with as much normalcy as we can expect. We’re starting right where we left off, and we’re going to keep going,” said Sunspot Solar Observatory Director and New Mexico State University astronomy professor R.T. James McAteer.

Employees have not been told what prompted the evacuation but are expecting a staff meeting Tuesday, with a news conference likely to follow sometime this week, said Heidi Sanchez, the education and public outreach coordinator of the Sunspot Astronomy and Visitors Center.

Staff was anticipating a line of news vans and curiosity seekers following the 11-day shutdown, but in the two hours after opening at 9 a.m., there were few visitors or media, Sanchez said.

“Now that we’re officially open and you don’t have to sneak on, it’s not such a draw. I anticipate probably this weekend (will be busier),” she said.

The evacuation
The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, the organization that oversees the observatory, reported Sunday that the site had been evacuated due to "law enforcement investigation of criminal activity" at Sacramento Peak, the mountaintop on which the observatory is located.

Authorities determined there was no risk to staff and that regular work could commence on Monday, the release stated.

“AURA was concerned the suspect may pose a threat to the people that live and work on site. AURA is extremely safety conscious when it comes to employees working in remote areas, and when they get any information like that, they are always going to act safety-first for the employees,” McAtee said.

Around 20 people were evacuated from the facility, including researchers, maintenance workers, and residents.

Employees doing research at the facility were able to telecommute from home during the time they were barred from the Observatory, McAtee said.

“I assured them from the very beginning that they were not going to lose out on getting paid,” he said.

Bruce Sagma, the facility’s maintenance chief, said this was the first time the facility had experienced anything like the evacuation. AURA offered to take care of employees who didn’t have anywhere to stay, he said.

“All residents that were on site were offered hotels if they didn’t have relatives to stay with. Our company was very generous in making sure everyone was taken care of,” Sagma said.

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Red Rock Security guard Angel Escalante stands in front of the Sunspot Astronomy and Visitor's Center, which reopened Monday, Sept. 17, 2018. Red Rock will have guards at the observatory for the rest of the week. (Photo: Dylan Taylor-Lehman/Daily News)

Security on site
Red Rock Security, a private security firm with an office in Alamogordo, was hired last week to keep people out of the site after numerous people illegally entered the property to shoot video or take drone footage.

Red Rock Security guard Dakota Palomino said that security will remain at the observatory for the rest of the week.

“They have us here right now because they’re expecting a spike in visitors,” Palomino said.

Red Rock Security guard Angel Escalante said she personally removed at least four people who were roaming around and filming, and that she has uncovered possible acts of vandalism and evidence of attempts to enter locked facilities.

“They were ripping off window screens to try to get in the houses,” Escalante said.

Conspiracy theories
The nature of the criminal activity that led to the evacuation hasn't been released publicly, but workers on site Monday didn't seem too concerned about a lingering threat.

News of the evacuation came with myriad conspiracy theories. Staff said they were following the rampant speculation online.

“I thought the idea that a spy hacked into the antenna to listen into White Sands Missile Range was the most plausible idea,” Sanchez said, jokingly.

Sagma said the evacuation was blown out of proportion.

The “suspicious” activities associated with the evacuation — such as black helicopters and homes seemingly emptied out in a hurry — have fairly pedestrian explanations, he said.

“This ballooned into something without it being anything,” Sagma said.

The houses on site were not empty because a government agency removed their contents but rather because the National Solar Observatory has been transitioning to a new location over the past two years, Sagma said.

“NSO is building a new telescope on Maui, and they moved the headquarters of the NSO, which used to be here, to Boulder, Colorado. This site is greatly downsized. The housing that used to be full has been evacuated because people have moved off site,” he said.

And the black helicopters — a common trope in conspiracy circles — is not as strange as it seems, Sagma said.

cb38daaf-5f24-40a5-9603-9a92bdc87adc-IMG_5825.JPG
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Residences at the National Solar Observatory in Sunspot, pictured here Monday, Sept. 17, 2018, have been largely unoccupied for a couple of years, because a large number of employees were moved to a facility in Colorado, said Bruce Sagma, the facility's chief of maintenance. (Photo: Dylan Taylor-Lehman/Daily News)

There are numerous facilities on the mountain ridge belonging to WSMR that are accessed by personnel from Kirtland and Holloman air force bases — both in New Mexico — via helicopter, he said. If there is an emergency on the mountain, emergency responders will utilize the same helipads, he said.

“That day, it was probably coincidental that that helicopter flew up there,” he said. “It’s like a kid putting a jigsaw puzzle together — yeah, you’re putting the pieces together, but you’re smashing them together.”

Even the presence of security guards prompted speculation.

“There was a picture of me and my partner, and it said that our company was contracted to protect the residents from aliens. I don’t know what their source was, but (protecting against aliens) wasn’t in my job description,” Palomino said.

“We’re also protecting them from Bigfoot,” Escalante said, laughing.

Despite the limited information given to staff, Sagma said he believes that AURA made the right call in evacuating the facility.

“This is the first time anything like this has ever happened,” he said. “They erred on the side of caution and the safety of employees and residents. Rather than take the situation too lightly and not protect their employees, then you really would have some news."

Sunspot history
The observatory, established in 1947, 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.

Sunspot’s one-of-a-kind telescope produces some of the sharpest images of the sun available in the world, officials said.

AURA is a consortium of 46 US institutions and four international affiliates that operates astronomical observatories around the world.
 
Quoted by Angelburst

the site had been evacuated due to "law enforcement investigation of criminal activity" at Sacramento Peak, the mountaintop on which the observatory is located.
Authorities determined there was no risk to staff and that regular work could commence on Monday, the release stated.

“AURA was concerned the suspect may pose a threat to the people that live and work on site. AURA is extremely safety conscious

"Criminal activity at Sacramento Peak"???? You mean, like aliens or a wormhole or a skinwalker???

"the suspect may pose a threat".... Like the people working there might see something they aren't supposed to see???!!!
 
Not sure why it would have to anything other than what they say, criminal activity. Imagine it was something other than an observatory, would anyone be suspecting "aliens"? Maybe the "black helicopter" was a police or other law enforcement helicopter.
 
In regards to videos from "securemteam 10", there are good reasons to mistrust anything that comes out of this and similar channels, or at least be very critical about it from the get-go. See for example here and here.

I think we all need to start using the working assumption that there are good reasons to mistrust anything that appears on the internet, period.
 
The official explanation doesn't make any sense. How would any "criminal activity" warrant such a chaotic reaction? If they had seen any episode of the X-files they should know that the best cover for an evacuation is a chemical or biological contaminant. It's bizarre.

Added: An example of muddying the waters from http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018...y-remains-closed-after-mysterious-evacuation?

All buildings on the site have been shut down and the staff of approximately 12 have been sent home, says James McAteer, Sunspot director and an NMSU astronomer in Las Cruces. He says shutdown events are not unusual, because remote mountaintop facilities can be closed due to sewage leaks, downed power lines, or snowstorms. But the Apache Point Observatory, located slightly lower down on the same mountain, remains open.

And then:

But, Aftergood [Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists] says, a solar observatory might not be the best place to conduct such activity. “I imagine most or all of its sensors are directed up.” He wonders if someone at the Sunspot observatory somehow inadvertently spotted a classified satellite or transmission, triggering the shutdown.

That might also explain why the facility has remained closed for so long, Aftergood says; it could take time to interview all relevant personnel, get them to sign nondisclosure agreements, and do background investigations to make sure they are not foreign agents.

So, which is which? Have they been sent home or to some facility for interrogation and for signing nondisclosure agreements (with the usual "we know where you live")?
 
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What I'm curious about - how are they going to spin and explain "the 11-day shutdown" and what was the nature of the "criminal activity" that warranted the sudden evacuation - "despite the limited information given to staff"?

And what's up with this carefully worded nonsense - like they are trying to protect their a$$ets from liability? Did everyone evacuated have to sign a non-disclosure form - so they could stay on the payroll ... with generous offerings?

“I assured them from the very beginning that they were not going to lose out on getting paid,” he said.

“All residents that were on site were offered hotels if they didn’t have relatives to stay with. Our company was very generous in making sure everyone was taken care of,” Sagma said.


Federal Register :: Notice of Availability and Notice of Public Meeting for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Sacramento Peak Observatory, Sunspot, New Mexico

Sacramento Peak Observatory is located in Sunspot, New Mexico, within the Lincoln National Forest in the Sacramento Mountains.
Established by the U.S. Air Force via a memorandum of agreement with the U.S. Forest Service in 1950, the facility was transferred to NSF in 1976. NSF and the U.S. Forest Service executed a land use agreement (signed in 1980) to formalize this transition and the continued use of the land for the observatory. The primary research facility in operation at the Sacramento Peak site is the Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope (DST), currently managed by the National Solar Observatory (NSO). The DST is a high-spatial resolution optical/infrared solar telescope. In addition to its own operations, the Sacramento Peak Observatory supplies water for the nearby Apache Point Observatory (APO).

Lincoln National Forest in the Sacramento Mountains - maybe shades of David Paulides & 411?
 
So, which is which? Have they been sent home or to some facility for interrogation and for signing nondisclosure agreements (with the usual "we know where you live")?

Judging only on the two quoted texts, the second text (statement) is simply a wild guess from the guy while the first statement is a statement of fact from another guy. „Muddying the waters“ would imply that the second guy knows what really happened (aka. „the 12 people were interregated and had to sign a non disclosure contract which thus explains why it was shut down so long“) and that’s why he said what he said. Which might be predicated on another assumption; „because of his position he likely knows more“. Which is also a guess.

So IMO no conceivable hard fact in those two statements that would indicate a „muddying of the waters“, unless I have missed something there?

What I‘m wondering though is; why are people allowed to freely go in there ( as evidenced by the video) when the staff was evacuated „for their safety, because a criminal suspect is around“? Was the „criminal threat“ already removed at the time were the guy entered the area with his camera?
 
So IMO no conceivable hard fact in those two statements that would indicate a „muddying of the waters“, unless I have missed something there?
The point is that their statements are so vague that they are empty of any real information and all is left is speculation. Evacuations for "criminal activities" (especially in an isolated place) do not take so much time unless they needed to ckeck all computers and hard drives or something of that nature (and to interrogate the staff, in which case they would not set them free). I find the part about suspiciously evacuating everybody so that a suspect doesn't suspect anything quite amusing.
 
They appear to have known exactly what they were expecting: Looks like the FBI helped to recover a controlled "Entry". Possible experiment subject for a time travel or teleport/wormhole tech. One of their 'own'.

Less likely is they simply received word of any "4thD-related drive-through" for a invasion preparing manouver, the Lizzies telling the secret government to clear the area temporarily, which makes less sense given the massive 4D technological superiority.

Couldn't have been a bigfoot/window-faller or an alien, since that would have forced military perimeters and big searches in the area.
 
I can't remember in which session it was but I clearly remember that Cs mentioned that some places on the earth will have bleedthrough into a 4D, and that one of the first places where it will happen will be in New Mexico.

This story looks something like that to me. All that X-files DVD and Criminal activity story is probably just a cover-up or a damage control. Something unusual happened there or they were expecting to happen and they must cover up all the activities so nobody will find the true reason.

Very interesting.
 
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