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

a reply to: Fiscal

Who doesn't like to be paid and not be working.

a reply to: roadgravel

Some new info about flights around the area..its been posted that it seems as though most flights are avoiding the area, although there is no flight restriction in effect. Could be a coincidence. Also there was a person who apparently went beyond the barrier and did not see anyone there at the observatory.

I cant say wether that second part is true yet, the person said they are going to upload photos they took while there so let's be patient at the very least.

originally posted by: SeaWorthy

originally posted by: wylekat
a reply to: doobydoll

I don't think those are planets. Not at the same exact size- and well- there's only ONE planet that could fit the size requirement, that'd be Venus. Mercury is so close, it'd be a tiny blob.

Another thing to ponder as well... if those are planets- where's the atmosphere that would catch the light of the sun and diffuse it? Venus again would be a blur, not a solid black disk.

*ponders a second* Why are there 2 in focus black disks, and nothing is out of focus at all? ????

It is the moon.

Going in 2 diff directions? Is it drunk?

It also paused the first wander by- or it looked like it did on the video.

Edit note: I'm sneezing my head off- so errors shall be creeping in...

originally posted by: Cootie
I heard it was closed for lack of funding. I have a friend up there in Timberon who's going to ask around.

Ah, yes. I know when places around here close for lack of funding, the FBI always shows up and shuts down the post office and evacuates everybody...

originally posted by: Fiscal
a reply to: 321cya

That just strikes me as odd. Your facility is shut down, people’s livelihoods are likely affected, the FBI are hanging around, the Post Office is closed, people are goofing with your antennas, it’s cited as a safety / security shutdown. And then we’re golfing and things are peachy. I know people deal with stress / changes differently, but it still just seems off given what all we’ve heard.

True. But, I hear he has been planning a move to Hawaii for a bit now.
So either, everything is not as bad as we fear and he's happy for early retirement, he doesn't like his employees, or he's playing it cool. I certainly don't have any answers, just sharing what I hear and speculating.

originally posted by: threeeyesopen
a reply to: BigDave-AR

I just skimmed through a lot of it, I did see mentions of increased solar activity along with people talking about the link I posted earlier from NASA.

There still is not any real information coming out, just speculation and most of it is about the sun. The thing about it being a solar event is if that is the case, we might as well kiss ourselves goodbye. If that's the case, I'm not going to even worry much about surviving it, what would be the chances of not being irradiated.

A solar flare cannot wipe put humanity. Just stop with that nonsense. Do some research. Learn about things.

originally posted by: threeeyesopen
a reply to: Fiscal

I will share the link, it's from a well known YouTuber so I hope it's all good.

m.youtube.com...

I know.. I just won't shut up...

Odd things to notice in the vid:

The incredible LACK of activity at the closed off entrance to town. No FBI, no one at all, no vehicles, NOTHING.
The fact you can walk right up to the stop sign itself- again... not so much as a camera and a snotty voice over a cheap speaker telling one to beat it.
Rod SPURZEON??? Wha?!

a reply to: 321cya

Absolutely, and thanks for sharing certainly. I know I’ve read there are similar facilities in Colorado and Hawaii. So that move makes sense, especially as it seems that grant money at Sunspot has reduced overall on average, though their grant still seems active.

a reply to: Fiscal

I'm trying to find confirmation that someone did indeed pass the barrier. There was a link for a video regarding this but the video got taken down quick and I couldn't see it or download it.

For reference though the guys username who posted the video was Johnnyapocalypse, I cant seem to find any info about the account but this person posted it on imgur and I have no way of getting any more info about this person. There is a still shot from the apparent video that I have, that's where I got the name of the uploader from otherwise that would have gone dark quick.

originally posted by: Maroboduus
A solar flare cannot wipe put humanity. Just stop with that nonsense. Do some research. Learn about things.

Haven't we recently observed super-flares from Alpha Centauri which fly in the face of that notion? Likewise, any thoughts on a massive CME allegedly causing the near instantaneous end of the Younger Dryas as opposed to an impact event? While I do not believe this is the case here, it would seem that something much larger than the 1859 Carrington event, which lit telegraph lines on fire, is in fact possible.

From the splinters in the woodmill of my mind...

Could somehow the weird hole in that capsule docked at the ISS be remotely related to this? I'm just wondering since the events happened so close together. Distraction, try to get the astronauts off the station....? Or just *cough, cough gag* coincidence?

Here's a brain fart ...

Given that 711 page report in PDF format that I clearly did not read but did skim over, that talks about shutting down the facility, and the fact that funding for the project seems to have been on the skids for some time (if I correctly understand what I've been reading here), I'm wondering if maybe - just maybe - this isn't just a bureaucratic overreaction to the shutdown of the facility and, as a natural consequence, the entire town.

If the facility was marked for shutdown and if there are any security issues related to it (e.g., connections to nearby military facilities, any sensitive information obtained and/or processed there, the large amount of mercury under the telescope, etc.), maybe the decision was made by some idiot government drone (we know those abound) to just shut it all down unannounced to avoid any backlash from employees, other non-alphabet soup agencies, etc., then deal with the consequences later.

It'd be a stupid way to go about it, but it's not like government agencies have never over-reacted or over-reached and done stupid things before. Matter of fact, I kind of expect the government to do stupid stuff. When accountability is limited and you can hide actions under claims of "security concerns", you just about have a license to do what-the-hell you want without having to answer for the fallout. This way, they make it quick and easy on themselves and let the rest of the world deal with the resulting s***storm. It'd offer involved parties the benefit of insulating the folks who made the decision from having to answer questions, deal with the public, other agencies and employees. They can act all hush-hush about it, keep it all cloak-and-dagger looking, pretend that it's a big secret and just do what they want. Then there really would be "nothing to see here," but that nothing would be obfuscated by all of this cloak-and-dagger act.

I can think of a few benefits to this kind of tactic.

Again, it'd be a stupid way to go about it, but we're pretty accustomed to gov't agencies doing stupid stuff. Just another possibility to add to the mix. Any cogent arguments against it? If nothing else, I think this idea has Occam's Razor going for it.
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originally posted by: Maroboduus

originally posted by: threeeyesopen
a reply to: BigDave-AR

I just skimmed through a lot of it, I did see mentions of increased solar activity along with people talking about the link I posted earlier from NASA.

There still is not any real information coming out, just speculation and most of it is about the sun. The thing about it being a solar event is if that is the case, we might as well kiss ourselves goodbye. If that's the case, I'm not going to even worry much about surviving it, what would be the chances of not being irradiated.

A solar flare cannot wipe put humanity. Just stop with that nonsense. Do some research. Learn about things.

I didn’t say it would directly but think about big cities running at of food and the resulting chaos I’m not spreading any fear I’m being realistic.

a reply to: BigDave-AR

Yes exactly.
A strong solar storm can certainly take out the power grid. It has already done so on smaller scales.
A widespread outage for days or weeks... or even longer... would cause chaos and loss of life.

a reply to: incoserv

I’ve been kind of leaning towards something like this for a bit now.

Hanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

That said, I’m open to all sorts of crazy ideas and I still find the whole thing about as captivating as anything in recent memory.

I don't know much about this stuff but I did find one place to watch movies of the sun. It is sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/dailymov.php If you go to this link and change the date to 9/09/2018 than click on the move link 2018-09-09/1024/0198 you will see the planet going one way across the sun. You can slow this down too to see it. Then go back and change the date to 09/10/2018 and go to the same movie 2018-09-10 | 1024 | 0193 and it shows the planet going the opposite direction. Does anyone know why or what it is? Could be nothing. I figured moon but other days it is not in the video. Why different directions?

a reply to: incoserv

To add to your point, the Post Office shutdown could likely be because it appears to be behind the observatory gate.

Antenna maintenance could be attributed to relocation as there wouldn’t be many people on site.

FBI involvement with little knowledge passed to the local authorities though, this seems to be the argument against something strictly due to funding. If it’s a funding issue and I want someone to vacate, as someone in authority, I’d love to pawn it off on local authorities to police the area. That seems to be a sticking point for me with a closure.

Additionally, they reference it on the observatory’s own site as a temporary closure.

That’s what I find so fascinating, a lot of explanations seem close, but none of them seem to quite fit properly.

originally posted by: Fiscal
a reply to: incoserv

Hanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Hanlon's Razor! HA!

That's a new one to me, better and more fitting than Occam's. Yep, that's where I'm leaning at this point.

Another thought? This tack would have the added benefit of conditioning the public (especially conspiracy nut-jobs like us) to think, next time around when something really is happening, that it's just another stupid gov't over-reaction. Maybe a bit more malice and a little less stupidity than you and I are inclined to suspect?
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originally posted by: Fiscal
a reply to: incoserv

(A)To add to your point, the Post Office shutdown could likely be because it appears to be behind the observatory gate.

Antenna maintenance could be attributed to relocation as there wouldn’t be many people on site.

(B)FBI involvement with little knowledge passed to the local authorities though, this seems to be the argument against something strictly due to funding. If it’s a funding issue and I want someone to vacate, as someone in authority, I’d love to pawn it off on local authorities to police the area. That seems to be a sticking point for me with a closure.

(C)Additionally, they reference it on the observatory’s own site as a temporary closure.

That’s what I find so fascinating, a lot of explanations seem close, but none of them seem to quite fit properly.

(A) The Post Office shutdown being simply part of decommissioning the entire operation all at once. No slow death, just put it all down at one time.

(B) Involving the FBI eliminates the chance of local authorities letting any information slip. Keeping them out of the loop heightens the sense of mystery.

(C) It'd follow, if my hypothesis is correct, that they'd call it "temporary" for now so as to keep the scent off of the real trail.
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originally posted by: Maroboduus

originally posted by: Cootie
I heard it was closed for lack of funding. I have a friend up there in Timberon who's going to ask around.

Ah, yes. I know when places around here close for lack of funding, the FBI always shows up and shuts down the post office and evacuates everybody...

Maybe it was an eviction not an evacuation, just got lost in the translation somewhere?