White Sands hat mittlerweile dementiert das sie damit etwas zu tun haben.
Macht eigentlich auch keinen Sinn, das Apache Point Observatory liegt gleich neben an und ist nicht gesperrt sowie es zig andere Orte wo man eine ähnliche oder wesentlich bessere Einsicht hat—White Sands/ Holloman liegt ja auch in der Wüste mitten im Tal. (
https://www.google.at/maps/place/White+Sands+Visitor's+Center/@32.7743625,-105.7956872,910a,35y,287.75h,77.56t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x86e0608829cf2fd5:0x525be83778e8e222!8m2!3d32.7796763!4d-106.1722457?hl=de&shorturl=1
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=12/32.8875/-105.9176&layers=C Die wenigsten schauen sich die geographischen Gegebenheiten an
;) )
Der Direktor des Sunspot Solar Observatory consortium hat einen Sicherheitsdienst beauftragt damit es nicht zu Vandalismus durch Schaulustige kommt.
Bis zum 06.09. arbeiten bis neun Personen am Gelände sowie eine Mitarbeiterin der Poststation, die Räumung wurde ebenfalls von der Uni (NMSU/ SSO) veranlasst und der Gebäude-Verwalter teilte dies auch der Postmitarbeiterin mit.
Das FBI gibt zu laufenden Ermittlungen keine Stellungnahme ab.
Der Direktor freut sich aber das das große Medieninteresse zu einer Zunahme der Besuche führen könnte sobald man wieder eröffnet.
"I picked up the phone, called our people, and asked them to lock up everything and leave quietly and sensibly," said Dr. James McAteer, who also teaches astronomy at NMSU. "It was extremely calm. They locked everything up and they left."
"Public interest in science is always good," the director said. "I hope every single person in the state wants to go to Sunspot to visit after this. That would be amazing. It is a public resource. It's open to the public. It's paid for by the public."https://www.kvia.com/news/new-mexico/nmsu-director-at-sunspot-solar-observatory-also-in-the-dark-over-sudden-closure/794573075 (Archiv-Version vom 14.09.2018)McAteer said his consortium assigns four researchers to the facility, although the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, another consortium, manages the buildings and other infrastructure with an additional four or five people.
That consortium, McAteer said, had ordered the site vacated, providing no other reason than a “security” issue.
The property manager also went into the post office on the facility and asked the woman working there to leave but gave no indication why that was necessary, said Rod Spurgeon, a Postal Service spokesman.
The guards, from Red Rock Security & Patrol in Las Cruces, N.M., did not give their names but said it was the first day the company was guarding the entrance and that only the “director and an assistant” were allowed in.
The adjacent Apache Point Observatory, a collection of telescopes about a half-mile away, was operating as normal on Friday, with about a dozen cars parked outside.
Sunspot and Apache Point offer scenic views of the Tularosa Basin, which includes two sensitive military sites, including Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range. A public affairs officer at White Sands said there was no testing or other activity at the range that would have prompted the evacuation in Sunspot.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/a-solar-observatory-in-new-mexico-is-evacuated-for-a-week-and-the-fbi-is-investigating-no-one-will-say-why/2018/09/14/ea006a96-b78b-11e8-a2c5-3187f427e253_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.bbe2ab8e329dWeiters zitiert die WP den Direktor des SSO: “My people, we didn’t do the evacuation, and we do the science,” McAteer said. Da könnte man schon mMn spekulieren ob es nicht NMSU bzw. die SSO selbst war die das FBI informierte, wahrscheinlich wird gerade gerätsel wer für das Chaos verantwortlich war die NMSU, das SSO oder die AURA.
