Related - I think this is the town that has the sun and planets scattered around - is supposed to give a perspective on the distances in space between the planets and stuff (I put their tour on my bucket list.)
The telescope doesn't need height because it basically just takes pictures of the sun - far more important to be away from light sources than to be high up. This kind of telescope was designed to not have the dome looking bit on it - which is used to help block out light interference. As I recall this type of telescope was designed because scientists at the time were complaining about turbulence from the viewer messing up the detail of pictures. The science the telescope helps with is called spectroscopy - the interaction between matter and electromagnetic radiation. Fancy words for "hey that rainbow light splits into when shined through a prism" AND, critically, how it changes when passed through various other matter, gas, liquid, etc. so thus their stress of turbulence changing the EMR waves of their pics. This kind of data is used in a number of fields from chemistry to quantum physics, though I do believe this particular telescope was purchased/recommissioned specifically for global warming kind of stuff, how the sun effects the planets temps and the like (though I can't find a brain pic giving a when nor /if/ it actually happened, just an article where said purchase/recommission was being discussed.) The telescope itself was built in... 1964... could be 1969 (brain pic is fuzzy) so asbestos wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility. Though I can't say as I've ever heard of the FBI being needed to clean up asbestos. It was built by the Army CoE, and if I'm not mistaken this telescope changed hands earlier this year. Sold to that university I'd think.
My guess: Trump closed it down and the FBI needed to go get the govs. private data off the systems/collect up their computers and such.
EDIT - I just recalled these types are vacuum sealed to prevent air movement and changes in the wavelengths, maybe some shit broke. ~shrug~
Good information. Why would the government be keeping it a secret if they were pulling out? If they don't want to share the equipment with the university, I can understand that, but why all the secrecy?
I don't think they are keeping it a secret, like I heard about it and I'm no one special...
I googled and found this on the NSO site (took for damned ever to load FYI) -
Legacy Telescopes - NSO - National Solar Observatory - That first one there is the Dunn Solar Telescope. I'll paste the article cause the website blows (leave it to the gov to **** up something as easy as a basic web page):
Sacramento Peak, Sunspot, New Mexico
NSO operations: 1969 – 2018
For more than half a century this location, high above Alamogordo, NM, has been known for its excellent daytime sky quality, both in terms of transparency and seeing.
The Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope (DST) was once the finest instrument of its kind in the world. Managed by NSO for almost half a century, its 0.2 arc-seconds resolution unveiled a multitude of secrets surrounding the complex magnetic fields that dominate the solar atmosphere. Equipped with a wide range of excellent instrumentation, such as the Universal Birefringent Filter and Echelle Spectrograph, the DST has also served as the test bed for the ongoing development of the next generation of solar instrumentation. This new instrumentation includes adaptive optics systems that will greatly reduce the effects of seeing on the solar image.
The DST specializes in solar high resolution imaging and spectroscopy. These observations allow solar astronomers worldwide to obtain a better understanding of the sun. The Dunn was inaugurated as the world’s premier high spatial resolution optical solar telescope in 1969. While larger telescopes have since been developed, the Dunn continues to be one of the most versatile, user-friendly setups in the world. It has two high-order adaptive optics benches to compensate for blurring by Earth’s atmosphere, and a 40-foot-wide observing platform hosting an array of instruments. Scientists and engineers use the Dunn to investigate a range of solar activities, often in concert with satellites, and to develop new technologies for the 4-meter
Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope.
DST Today
Sunspot Solar Observatory Consortium now runs the Sunspot Visitors Center and Dunn Solar Telescope, in collaboration with NSO. The Dunn Solar Telescope a one-of-a-kind solar telescope that produces some of the sharpest images of the Sun available in the world. The visitors center is open daily, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through the summer months. For more information about the Dunn Solar Telescope, visit
www.sunspot.solar.
---
So it's in "collaboration" with the university. Articles that came up in my search say there was a "safety" issue, I breezed through a bunch of the local shit.
I'm changing what I think is going on firmly to "something broke" and the FBI cats are in there with the Army CoE to fix whatever broke.
You can find some video tours of the place in action on YouTube, mildly interesting stuff if you like computer screens
