David Reneke has a Report on the sunspot solar observatory near Alamagordo that was shut down for unknown "security" reasons,


They use a mercury mirror, which might be part of the problem behind the closure... and the latest news is that the observatory is going to reopen soon, so the problem must be fixed.



But that hasn't stopped the conspiracy theories spawning all over the internet.

why? Because reports claim

The facility’s location, near military installations two hours’ drive from the town of Roswell, has sparked speculation on social media. Roswell was the site of a famous 1947 sighting of UFOs which the Air Force later said were top-secret high altitude weather balloons.

Uh, not it's not that close.

To get to Roswell, you have to go over a mountain pass/mountain range, part of which is the Mescalero Apache reservation, and part of which includes a lot of summer resorts and winter ski resort areas including Ski Apache near Ruidoso and Cloudcroft... and the areas is full of rich Texans.. And the only ones meaner than the Apaches are the Texans,

Lots of Hispanics in the area, many who have lived there for a couple hundred years. When you go up the mountain on the interstate between Alamagordo and Ruidoso, you see a large Cross in Bent,  to commemorate the last battle between the locals and the Apaches. 

Every year, they hold two ceremonies to commemorate the battle: one by the Apaches and the next day by the locals from Tularosa.

Holloman AFB is southwest of Mescalaero, in the basin between mountain ranges, and it is where they test stuff, including lots of experimental airplanes: Our people just shrugged and said if you saw a UFO it was probably just the Air Force doing their thing.

And also in the area: White Sands Missle Range, and Trinity site, which is about an hour northwest of Mescalero.

Ironically, I never got to Roswell: My husband wasn't interested in UFO or Sci fi stuff, but my son and other visitors used to visit the place all the time.

So where do the Nazis come into this?

Well, the Luftwaffe trains their pilots in Holloman AFB: They even have a German TV station on their cable there.

So my conspiracy theory is that the Lizard Nazis did it...(/s)

(the joke comes from Iron Sky and Iron Sky 2)