National Solar Observatory, USPS office in Sunspot, NM evacuated for 'safety reasons'

sunspot.solar...

Interesting A week ago so they clearly thought they would be still going

You have been patiently waiting and now it has finally happen...our gift shop is open for business 👏🏻👏🏻 check out these cool solar active friendship bracelets we just got in for the… www.instagram.com... …

nope not closing
October 2016
Sunspot gets $1.2 million for telescope

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich and U.S. Representative Steve Pearce announced that New Mexico State University will receive $1.2 million from the National Science Foundation to upgrade the Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope in Sunspot. The NSF award – appropriately announced on the fall equinox – will support efforts to transition the operation of the research facility from the National Solar Observatory to a university-based consortium led by NMSU.

www.mountaintimes.net...

a reply to: caterpillage

Agreed. I keep thinking about the post office aswell and wonder why it was closed... Is there anyway to find out when it was built in relation to the observatory?

Pure speculation on my part, but I wonder if they are connected underground in some way. (I'll try amd make this story short but goes to my line of thinking lol)


The town I grew up in was extemely small, a college town in Central Va. The biggest employer was the local hospital built in the 60s. My mother worked at the hospital. Being a single mother she often brough me and my sisters with her when she would be called in or had to work over night. One night i remember her getting called in, my sisters (older) were at friends houses so I was the only one that went with her. Usually my sisters watchex me but on this night she had me stay with one of the security guards. I'm not sure what time it was but i know it was late and the main hospital was pretty much deserted and most of the lights turned off. I remember always thinking how creepy it was at night when they cut the lights off like that.

In an effort to keep me "occupied" the guy that was watching me decided to show me something "cool". We went to a door that didn't look out of place and maybe said "authorized personnel" or something similar. On the other side was a very long hallway with a steep incline but no stares then another door. Once opening that door there was a stair case that wrapped around in a square pattern going only down not up. I have no clue how far down we went but st the bottom of the stairs there was a huge metal door and it had a yellow and red radioactive sign on it. He opend the door and it was like a hige gymnasium. The lights were out so we didn't go in, only let me stand in the doorway and he shined his flashlight. I remember rows of shelves full of stuff amd could see other doors along the walls. He said it was an old fallout shelter that was original designed to hold, i believe , around 500 people. I remember that number specifically. That when it was built it would have held most of the people in the town if needed. But something he said (the whole point of this post) was that there were only 2 entrances. One was in the hospital, the one we went to. The other was in the basement of the "house on the hill". The house was a big brick house overlooking the hospital that eventually was turned into hospice care, but was originally owned by the man who once owned/financed the building of the original hospital. Idk how far but standing outside it was about a football field away, comoletely guessing.

Long winded post i know. Sorry lol but i wo der if there was some kind if alternative entrance in the post office building, in order to secure the facility they had to secure that too? I read somewhere it was only 500ft away- and this thought immediately popped into my head. Ive always been fascinated by old fallout/civil defense shelters and knowing the observatory was initially commissioned in the 60s I do wonder if that is a possibility

The first directer there killed himself and his wife but it seems innocent they were just old.

www.nytimes.com...

a reply to: SeaWorthy

Thanks, and thank you for the great thread!

a reply to: itswhatev

Thanks for posting that, it's a great story. I'd love to explore something like that.

They could be connected underground, I can't find anything other than the main telescope being underground on line. But unofficially, who knows.

It's fascinating what can lie behind doors marked "authorised personel only"

a reply to: caterpillage

Ive often over the last 20 years or so wished I could actually go back and "explore" it more than just looking through the doorway. I remember it smelling extremely musty like a crawlspace so in all reality it was probably full of, god only knows how many types, mold and creepy crawlies. I imagine the reality would probably a lot more mundane than all of the fascinating possibilities in my young imagination. It is still impressive to think of the forethought needed for someone to spend their, im guessing, own money in an attempt to save a small town's people from nuclear Armageddon lol but I guess during that time, that was a legitimate fear among a lot of people and from our town's lore growing up thay family certainly had the $$.

Again just pure speculation but only remotely logical reasoning for also closing the Post office aside from some chemical attack of some sort. Given the lack of hazmat crews of any kind though, i find that increasingly less likely.

Can't wait to get some new information about this. It's a nice break from the Hurricane Florencr stress that has began consuming me the last 24 hours or so and will be for the next week. With my luck news will be released JUST about the time we lose power here.

a reply to: itswhatev

Hope you fair well in the hurricane, I have a couple friends in Raleigh. Got a good flood a couple years ago down there and lost power for a couple days.
Rough stuff. Even inland.


I'm going to poke around online some more later, the majority of the site was built during the cold war era, so underground "safe areas" could be a thing.

Relatively recent article update here. Some new quotes and timeline info:

www.kvia.com...

Looks like the post office is past the gate where the evacuated everyone. Could be that was the only reason it closed.

a reply to: Fiscal

Good to see the news is still on it there.
This story is starting to gain some serious traction online, and it won't be long before it turns into a giant sh@tshow if the fbi doesn't come out with some info.

My guess is we'll see a press conference tomorrow on it.

I'm not sure if anyone already posted this but our motorcycle guy on Facebook who lives near Sunspot reported that he took a drive up today and spotted tons of out of town DOT vehicles all over the place (which he said he's never seen before and he frequents this drive). He couldn't get up to the the observatory because it started raining. Hopefully he heads back up tomorrow.

a reply to: TheGoondockSaint

I saw that too.

Still waiting on the guy to reply about the pic of the Dunn telescope......

originally posted by: Violater1
Well, let's see what we have here.
8 tons of Mercury to hold and settle the scope,
FBI presence ( Terrorism?)
Had to move everyone out so fast that they couldn't find enough room for everybody and had to devide them up into two locations?
Three small earthquakes near Socoro NM:
2017-12-11 11:41:24 (UTC), Location 33.962°N 106.780°W Depth 6.3 km
2017-12-12 07:25:07 (UTC) Location 34.102°N 107.097°W Depth 5.0 km
2017-12-01 17:12:00 (UTC) Location 34.296°N 106.802°WDepth 7.0 k

Could the Mercury be leaking?

It’d be pure elemental metallic mercury which is a lot less dangerous than people think, it’s when you get other compounds in it that it becomes super toxic and they’d have a secondary containment vessel.

Elemental Mercury (liquid metallic mercury) is poorly absorbed by ingestion and skin contact. Its vapor is the most hazardous form. Animal data indicate less than 0.01% of ingested mercury is absorbed through the intact gastrointestinal tract, though it may not be true for individuals suffering from ileus. Cases of systemic toxicity from accidental swallowing are rare, and attempted suicide via intravenous injection does not appear to result in systemic toxicity,[27] though it still causes damage by physically blocking blood vessels both at the site of injection and the lungs. Though not studied quantitatively, the physical properties of liquid elemental mercury limit its absorption through intact skin and in light of its very low absorption rate from the gastrointestinal tract, skin absorption would not be high.[34] Some mercury vapor is absorbed dermally, but uptake by this route is only about 1% of that by inhalation.

a reply to: SeaWorthy

I think I know what is going on! They found out that Trump had been sneaking into the telescope after hours and colluding with Russia!

a reply to: TruthJava

Dude. Seriously don't bring Trump into this thread.
This is a safe place away from that crap.

originally posted by: pteridine

originally posted by: caterpillage

originally posted by: zenartist
It was stated the scope sits on many tons of mercury .. could a large or dirty bomb create a large cloud of mercury gas and drift and contaminate a large area ?

From what I've found, the telescope is supported by the mercury being contained in a sort of fluid bearing from the top. Creating a frictionless movement. Or very close.
The bottom is 221 feet below ground coming to an almost point. At the 221 foot mark is a sump pump.

If the system failed and pumped mercury out of the sump and onto the ground, that would cause an evacuation.

They would have a leak detection system that would shut off the sump pump in case of a leak in the charge pipe.

a reply to: BigDave-AR

The mercury is a 100 foot in the air as well, it would have a lot of levels to leak down through to reach the sump pump

You'll all see tomorrow. Enjoy the new Continental "Look!"

Shake...Rattle.....and....Roll!

Hint: Edgar Cayce's Map....the real one where NM is half under water....

a reply to: BigDave-AR

a reply to: SecretsoftheBlueApples

It's gonna hit the fan tonite huh?

a reply to: itswhatev

Speculative thought but non the less intriguing.

Great read.

bally