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FBI Mysteriously Closes New Mexico Observatory

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Re: FBI Mysteriously Closes New Mexico Observatory

#121

Post by closeparen »

toss1 wrote: post #120
closeparen wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no way prosecutors and courts would actually commit to an Espionage Act conviction of an astronomer for looking at the wrong part of the sky. That's absurd.

Looking? No Photographing and publishing or sending to unauthorized parties foreign or domestic, bet on it. You might get away with a stern visit from one of the 3-letter-agencies if it's minor importance and ignorance, but do it again... If you doubt it, please do the test and report back the results.

This guy makes an entire artistic career photographing classified things from public places: http://www.paglen.com/?l=work.

There’s even an active hobbyist community tracking and photographing classified satellites for public message boards: https://www.popsci.com/zuma-spy-satellite-amateur-astronomer....

This isn’t Soviet Russia.

Re: FBI Mysteriously Closes New Mexico Observatory

#123

Post by TokyoKid »

paultopia wrote: post #6

ALIENS. (But seriously, my guess would be some kind of DoD/security thing? Was someone there doing military research and got hacked? Because that would explain why the FBI would lock it down and not let anyone else in law enforcement go near...)

[dead]

Re: FBI Mysteriously Closes New Mexico Observatory

#124

Post by eesmith »

linksnapzz wrote: post #73
projectileboy wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the link. I haven't seen the book, but I know when I took a computational physics class as an undergrad (~25 years ago), there was a definite overlap between the modeling necessary to understand stellar collapse, and the modeling necessary to build better nuclear weapons.

A late friend who worked on type II supernova simulations was once invited to talk about his team's software with some gentlemen at an NNSA lab, Los Alamos or Livermore or Sandia (I forget which one.) At the conclusion of the talk, the DOE guys said appreciative things about the current work, but also pointed out that certain avenues of investigation into certain characteristics might lead to the gov't declaring this…

There's a story about a US astrophysicist grad student working on stellar evolution. A visiting Soviet scientist came to give a talk. At the end the student asked a question about one aspect of the talk, something like, how do you know the plasma is transparent to photons at that temperature? The visiting Russian just said "it is." Later, the grad student mentioned it, quizzically, to his advisor. His advisor pointed out that it was something that came out of nuclear bomb research.

I looked, but could not find that anecdote.

Re: FBI Mysteriously Closes New Mexico Observatory

#125

Post by dredmorbius »

wrs wrote: post #24

>“Nobody would give us any information on what was going on,” House [the sheriff] said, before the phone call cut out and repeated attempts to reach him again were unsuccessful. Seriously? Is this an ARG?

It's difficult to express just how remote these areas are. I've not been to Sunspot, though I've travelled nearby. Cellphone coverage is at best extraordinarily sparse, towns infrequent, and not all those marked on maps have much by way of services.

Gorgeous vistas, though. And staggering brushfires.

Re: FBI Mysteriously Closes New Mexico Observatory

#126

Post by toss1 »

closeparen wrote: post #121
toss1 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking? No Photographing and publishing or sending to unauthorized parties foreign or domestic, bet on it. You might get away with a stern visit from one of the 3-letter-agencies if it's minor importance and ignorance, but do it again... If you doubt it, please do the test and report back the results.

This guy makes an entire artistic career photographing classified things from public places: http://www.paglen.com/?l=work . There’s even an active hobbyist community tracking and photographing classified satellites for public message boards: https://www.popsci.com/zuma-spy-satellite-amateur-astronomer... . This isn’t Soviet Russia.

Of course it is not Soviet Russia, and I'm aware of those activities.

It's one thing for amateurs doing those 'trainspotting' type of activities with commercial- or even professional grade equipment, but another to do it with research-grade telescopes and listening equipment.

Obviously the amateurs are basically unstoppable, and are getting the same level of open information that any foreign agent can get by looking in the open. Nothing new is lost and there is no purpose in chasing the amateurs.

However, we're talking about professional astronomers with both higher-grade knowledge, much higher-grade equipment (and likely operating under at least partial govt funding for the project or equipment), and operating under some regulations and laws. It is silly to expect that being noticed breaking those laws or regs would go un-addressed.

But, as stated above, if you feel differently, feel free to do the actual test and report back your results.

Re: FBI Mysteriously Closes New Mexico Observatory

#127

Post by lamontcg »

lamontcg wrote: post #110

My guess is someone's ex-boyfriend/ex-husband had some OChem background and decided to go a bit ted kaczynski. The FBI got involved due to threats of explosives, they went into his apartment and found real evidence of bomb making. Would also be consistent with the Post Office having been shut down if he was planning on mailing anything. Might also be politically motivated, but I'm going to bet on personal since this…

Looks like I was on the right track, it was a "criminal investigation" and:

"During this time, we became concerned that a suspect in the investigation potentially posed a threat to the safety of local staff and residents."

https://www.space.com/41852-sunspot-solar-observatory-openin...

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