Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2018

OBSERVATORIES 23 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018 L et’s try to imagine the plot of a spy story set in an astronomical observa- tory. On any given day, researchers and staff of the adjoining facilities, as well as the inhabitants of a nearby village, are evacuated by the FBI, whose men occupy the entire area. The official motivation told by the well-known federal investigative service is a generic “security reasons”. The FBI throws out from the investigation the sheriff of the county in which the spy story takes place, keeping him and his deputy in the dark about everything. In- stead, a private security service is recruited to monitor the perimeter of the observa- tory area, so that no one can enter illegally or take photos or video with drones. During the occupation of the complex of buildings belonging to the observatory, FBI agents root around a system of tele- communications antennas, within whose radius there are two high-profile military T he unmistakable tower of the Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope. The visible part of the structure is 41 meters high. The instrument then develops vertically in the subsoil for another 59 meters. [Samat Jain]