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L2 BBC Story Report


Project title
Shedding light on the Sunspot Solar Observatory

 

The idea
My passion for UFO spotting and extra-terrestrial investigations led to the idea that I wanted to talk about a similar topic for a report type of project. One stand-out story that occurred recently and the first that came to mind during planning was the closure of the Sunspot Solar Observatory (SSO) in Sunspot, New Mexico. It was the first case in quite a while that really perplexed me and piqued my curiosity. To cut a long story short, the observatory was mysteriously closed down by the US government with no idea as to why, and a day later a full FBI investigation was initiated. It led to wild speculation with theories ranging from a secret crime ring using the site as cover to the obligatory claims of "They found aliens!" (a bandwagon which I, admittedly, immediately jumped on to when first hearing about the case). 

 

The research you undertook
When trying to find comparative examples I looked for both reports about the Sun (after all, it is a solar observatory I'm talking about) and, of course, space.

 
The first story I found was that of the James Webb Space telescope. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45400144). It's the newest telescope from NASA that supposedly has the potential to let us see alien life... when it launches in 2021. I used this story as comparison because it mentions the possibility of seeing alien life, which was a popular theory about the SSO's closure. Plus, it is the successor to the Hubble space telescope, a telescope renowned as one of the largest and most versatile, advancing the field of astronomy greatly. Being an observatory, it's only natural for the SSO to also have a telescope: the Richard B. Dunn Telescope, a unique vertical-axis telescope allowing for higher resolution and a better understanding of the Sun. Although both telescopes focus on a different area of study, they make for a nice opportunity to compare with each other.
Image result for james webb telescope

 


 

 
The second comparative example was the picture of a star taken as the star was becoming a supernova. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37098317). Astronomers managed to catch pictures of a star in the midst of the end of its life, a phenomenon known as a nova. I used this as a comparative example because both the pictures and the SSO expand our knowledge of stars, what with the sun being a star and all. Furthermore, many believe that the SSO was shut down by the FBI because the Sun was exploding and releasing solar storms to wipe out humanity, and they didn't want to create a wide spread panic.

 


images of star exploding

 

 
The next story is a bit of an older one, but insightful nonetheless: Yu Jun's photographs of the Bailey's Beads phenomenon (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-37337537). In 2016, Chinese photographer Yu Jun won the award for Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year for his photographs of Bailey's Beads. Bailey's Beads, named after 19th Century astronomer Francis Baily, are the result of the specks of light that appear around the Moon during a total eclipse of the Sun. The photographs taken of Baily's Beads help advance the research of the sun's effects on other planets and/or satellites, such as the Moon. After all, the two go hand-in-hand when affecting the Sun. 

 
Baily's Beads of the total solar eclipse on 9th March 2016 from Luwuk, Indonesia

 


Research for your article
Firstly, I read some real-life articles about the SSO closure that I found dotted around the web, including the report from Sky News (https://news.sky.com/story/mystery-closure-of-observatory-and-fbi-presence-in-sunspot-new-mexico-11496171) and 9News (https://www.9news.com.au/2018/09/17/10/28/sunspot-solar-observatory-in-new-mexico-closes-mysteriously) for reference and to learn more about the event. The articles proved useful as they held more information and included interviews which I used for my article.

 
I then watched a video by YouTube user secureteam10 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HsThCAoGpc), who reports on news and findings about space and UFOs. In the video, the narrator Tyler summarises the Sunspot story in detail and gives his thoughts on the subject. This video is how I learned of this story in the first place (as I follow this particular YouTube channel quite closely) and I thought revisiting it for this project would help my research.

 
Afterwards I haphazardly stumbled upon the Alien Expanse forum, specifically this section (https://alienexpanse.com/index.php?threads/mysterious-closing-of-observatory.2659/) in which users discuss the closure of the site. It was useful because it let me gather other peoples' opinions on what really happened in Sunspot.

 
Target Audience
  • Demographic: Those who enjoy a good mystery, who show an interest in space and/or who believe in aliens and are looking for signs of whether or not something is out there.
  • Age: 12+
  • Gender: Male
  • Job: Ufologist
  • Income: ?
  • Country / City: America
  • Interests: Sci-Fi, Science



Journalism story development
When deciding what the headline would be, I wanted to make it a pun that was short and snappy while getting the point across, just like a traditional news headline. After spending lots of time thinking I eventually settled with "Shedding light on the Sunspot Solar Observatory". It's a SOLAR observatory, after all: what "sheds more light" than the Sun itself?

 
From there, I wanted to make the rest of the article as professional as possible. The subheading summarises the incident I am talking about in one short sentence. The opening statement I tried to keep brief: Three one-sentence paragraphs introducing the observatory and what it does, what happened there and more detail about what was happening (in that order).

Final copy

 



Shedding light on the Sunspot Solar Observatory



A leading observatory was shut down recently with no explanation given as to why.




The National Solar Observatory, located in the town of Sunspot, New Mexico, has been conducting astronomical research since it was established in 1952.




However, locals and tourists alike were baffled when US government officials suddenly sealed the facility off for seemingly no reason.




Furthermore, the entire town was evacuated to make room for an FBI investigation.




Even the local police were left in the dark.Otero County Sheriff Benny House stated: "The FBI is refusing to tell us what's going on."




"What their purpose was, nobody will say. But for the FBI to get involved so quickly and be so secretive about it... there was a lot of stuff going on up there." sheriff House told ABC News.




Since the observatory was closed down, many conspiracy theories have arisen from the incident. These theories range from accusations of workers using the site as a cover for illegal activities to the possibility that maybe something was seen in the skies.




The latter theory bears more credibility than you may think: The observatory is located at a 200km drive away from Roswell, New Mexico, where a UFO allegedly crashed in 1947.


Until an official statement is released by the US government, we may never know what's really happening in Sunspot.

 



The final BBC design solution
The design of the BBC web page was built entirely around the template we were given.

 

 

 

 





 

 

 
From there I only edited the layers already there to fit with the theme of my article. This includes changing the headline:

 




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 




 
Sub-heading:

 

 

 

 
And the main body:

 

 

 

 

 

 
Video idea
The video is a brief overview of the events that happened in Sunspot, explained with text subtitles. The video was edited together with footage relevant to what is being said on screen. In a way, it's another version of the article with video representation.

 

Video script / SB

 
(Open with an overview shot of the National Solar Observatory in Sunspot)

 
The National Solar Observatory has been conducting astronomical research since 1952.

 
(Cut to close-up clips of stop signs and police tape)

 
However, the observatory was mysteriously closed with no reason given as to why.

 
(Video of someone drifting through an abandoned Sunspot from a first-person camera perspective.)

 
"The town of Sunspot was soon evacuated, causing confusion and panic.

 
(Video of Blackhawk helicopters in the sky)

 
FBI agents and Blackhawk helicopters were dispatched to investigate the mysterious "security threat".

 
(Stock footage of flashing police lights)

 
Not even the police were informed of what was happening.

 
(Slow zoom into a picture of two FBI agents)

 
Otero County Sheriff Benny House said: "For the FBI to get involved so quickly and be so secretive about it, there was a lot of stuff going on up there."

 
(Clip taken from Jeremy Corbell and David Rubin's discussion on real-life aliens caught on camera, to represent people discussing a matter)

 
The incident sparked a lot of discussion and debate amongst theorists.

 
(Close-up shot of the Sun burning bright)

 
Some say that there is an impending solar storm ready to wipe out humanity...

 
(Cut to a clip from rather eerie film of a fake alien interview)

 
...while others believe we may soon come into contact with an alien race.

 
(Final shot of some overhead drone footage monitoring Sunspot)

 
Until an official cause is revealed, we may never know what's really happening in Sunspot.
 


Video production
Filming my own footage on the SSO proved to be impossible: after all, I wasn't exactly able to take a plane to New Mexico for the film. Instead, I took some creative liberties and used footage from the internet, mostly from YouTube (generic stock footage on the web is harder to get than I once thought):

 
 

 

Video post-production
 After I had gathered all of the videos I needed, I began to place them into an order I saw fit. This proved to be quite difficult as I hadn't given much thought to a storyboard or script beforehand, so ideas kept changing and led me astray. I managed in the end, however.

 
That was the visual aspect of the video done, but what about actually telling the story? Instead of a voiceover, I used bits of text over each clip to properly convey the story: I can thank time restraints and a lack of self-confidence for that. When I finished adding the text, I noticed that it wasn't very visible over the footage. To fix this I added a stroke and shadow effect to make it stand out.

 
All that was left to do was add the audio. This part came naturally as I already knew exactly what music I wanted to use. The track I decided upon was "Ghost Story" by Kevin Macleod (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOzMf8pd4R0&t=9s). It's mystifying while also unsettling, and is perfect for setting an ominous tone. After all, some theories surrounding the Sunspot incident deal with disturbing and haunting topics.

 

Upload onto youtube / insert video in WIX webpage of the photoshop skin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L66RHwP_quY

 

Testing of BBC story in situ

 

Evaluation

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