Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2018

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018 have led the observatory to a progressive decline, which perhaps will culminate with its closure when the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST), 4 meters in diameter, the successor to DST, will be completed. Today, most of the facili- ties that make up the Sunspot Solar Observatory are no longer managed and the whole area is ani- mated only by a few re- searchers working with DST and guiding groups of visitors, by a handful of employees and workers, by the residents of the small town of Sunspot, and by the staff assigned to the local office. Altogether, about twenty people, protagonists in spite of themselves, were involved in the mysterious evacuation that kept them away from their residences for more than ten days between September 6 th and 17 th . Immediately, the affair was cloaked in se- crecy, which triggered a turmoil of hypoth- esis about why the population was moved S atellite map of the territories surrounding the village of Sun- spot. The places that have con- tributed to mak- ing the observa- tory evacuation more mysterious are highlighted with red circles: the military bases of White Sands and Holloman; the area of the first atomic test, near Socorro; the town of Roswell, so loved by ufolo- gists. [Google Maps] video recorded through a drone by a stranger during the first days of the evacuation of the observatory. Also to avoid these intrusions, a security service was quickly activated.