On 09/18/2018 03:52 PM, Razer wrote:
After Mysterious Closure, Solar Observatory In New Mexico Reopens : NPR
Laurel Wamsley
A solar observatory in New Mexico reopened Monday after being closed by authorities for 10 days — which spawned national interest and speculation into the cause of its evacuation.
[ schnipp ]
"We cannot wait to get back to work to show everyone the world class research we do every day at the telescope," McAteer said.
NPR's Emily Sullivan contributed to this report.
https://www.npr.org/2018/09/17/648804508/after-mysterious-closure-solar-obse...
My venture into Conspiracy Theory re this event, from another forum: NSO has a couple of unique instruments: https://www.nso.edu/telescopes/#more "The NSO Integrated Synoptic Program (NISP) provides long-term synoptic observations of the Sun’s photosphere, chromosphere, and magnetic field. NISP operates a suite of instruments from the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) which is located at six sites around the world, resulting in 24/7 observations of the Sun. NISP also operates the Synoptic Optical Long-term Investigations of the Sun (SOLIS) program, which is located at Big Bear Observatory in California. "The National Science Foundation‘s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) which is being built and operated by NSO, will be a 4-m off-axis solar telescope with a suite of cutting-edge first light instruments. Focused on better understanding the behaviors of the solar magnetic field, from the photosphere to the corona, DKIST will revolutionize our understanding of the Sun and it’s dynamic behavior. Using a technique called spectropolarimetery, pioneered by the NSO and the world’s leading solar scientists, we will indirectly measure magnetic fields in the corona for the first time. Some of these instruments may have been "of interest" to the military reconnaissance and/or signals intelligence community. Also note the closure of the nearest Post Office. Was a package sent by or received at NSO that could cause this much ruckus? Depends what it might have been: A chemical or biological weapon could produce the response seen, but why mail it to or from NSO? I rule out chemical or biological payload for two reasons: First, why target the Observatory? Second, early press reports did not describe use of protective clothing by the Feds seen on site, or the presence of any medical or Public Health teams. What else could someone have mailed out that would bring a Federal Shroud of Secrecy and Cone of Silence down on NRO? My guess: A "spectropolarimetery" or other unique sensor and/or its complete engineering docs might have gone missing. If the Feds asked the Geeks what it does, then relayed their answer to NRO for an opinion, the sensor might have got retroactively classified Top Secret due to its potential ability to unmask some U.S. stealth technology, or other wierdshit liek that. I think that accounts for all observations to date, better than anything I have seen so far. If the above scenario did happen, it's a clusterfuck: Any such sensor would leave a massive paper trail through the Solar Astronomy and Astronomical Metrics worlds, no hope in hell of scooping up enough of that data to prevent "hostiles" from reconstructing the sensor from open source clues. :o)