LUCIFER telescope

Typical conspiratorial website claiming that Lucifer project is run by the Vatican and the Jesuits

Some dare call it Conspiracy

What THEY don't want you to know!

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The LUCIFER telescope conspiracy theory, like many conspiracy theories, involves the usual antagonists: Catholics, The Vatican, and the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits). According to the wingnut Bible thumping dingbat conspiracy theorists, the Vatican is in possession of a telescope named LUCIFER which they have used to find extraterrestrials. Furthermore, Catholics, the Vatican, and the Jesuits are keeping the discovery of ETs secret.

This conspiracy theory is propagated by the Koinonia Institute and websites such as Time to Believe, Open Minds, and One World of Nations. Chuck Missler of Koinonia House has given the conspiracy theory his blessing, going on to coauthor The Hybrid Age with Tom Horn, one of the originators of the conspiracy. The Jim Bakker Show has promoted the conspiracy on a few occasions. Most such sites have been owned or maintained by fundamentalist or independent Baptists or non-denominational Protestant Christian sects.

The conspiracy theory claims that several multinational organizations and the Catholic Church have teamed together to make contact with extraterrestrial intelligences and created a one world government and religion (which is the Catholic Church) to usher in the coming New World Order. The Lucifer Telescope is used to locate, track, or make contact with the ETs.

As with any conspiracy theory, it has mutated as several conspiracy theorists that have added to the mainline conspiracy with their own version.

In the beginning

Tom Horn and Cris Putnam on the Sid Roth Show, It's Supernatural!, on April 1, 2013

The LUCIFER telescope conspiracy was originated by two conniving and enterprising cretins, Tom Horn and Cris Putnam, who could not make it in the already overcrowded Bible-thumping marketplace and instead branched out into the world of make believe and fantasy. Horn is an evangelical Baptist preacher who has authored a few books, each delving into a conspiracy of one sort or another. According to the Jim Bakker Show, Putnam was a Christian apologist and theologian who croaked has since passed away from the land of the living. The two recreants Horn and Putnam have co-authored five books together, each one written regarding some aspect of Jesuits, Vatican, and the aliens. Both were members of the Koinonia Institute run by the Bereans as a Christian multi-denominational think tank.

Horn and Putnam gained access to the Mt. Graham complex through the University of Arizona (which Horn continually misidentified as Arizona State University) posing as journalists. As can be expected, the pair made a dramatic event of the occasion, play acting the part of intrepid gumshoes embarking on a clandestine operation in the cloak-and-dagger world of dark, arcane knowledge that is astronomy. The researchers at the sites, happy as usual that some journalists were taking an interest in science, gave them and their cameraman a day-long tour of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) and Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) facilities. Horn and Putnam had the opportunity to interview the researchers at both sites without hindrance. Subsequent to the event, Horn contacted Br. Guy J. Consolmagno SJ and conducted an interview via a series of e-mail exchanges. These events which transpired purportedly became the basis of their research and subsequent book.

Horn and Putnam included this particular conspiracy in their book Exo-Vaticana. They toured various Christian churches, organizations, and shows promoting their book. During one such interview with the nutbar televangelist Sid Roth's It's Supernatural! dog-and-pony show which aired on April 1, 2013, the pair of buffoons claimed that Consolmagno provided them the scoop on secret Vatican research the Jesuits were conducting, searching for aliens through the VATT. It is their claim that Consolmagno intimated to them that Jesus was the son of a star child and was the result of an alien abduction. In the same interview, Horn and Putnam claimed that Msg. Carrado Balducci, whom they claim is a spokesman for the Vatican, intimated to them that the Vatican has known of aliens and uses their embassies to keep tabs on aliens' activities in all regions of the world. In a second interview seven days later, they indicated that Mt. Graham is a sacred Apache site and is in reality a stargate where aliens and other dimensional entities can enter and exist.

In a speech to the Koinonia Institute, Horn claimed that the Apache peoples did not want the Vatican setting up an observatory. However, since the Vatican was deep inside the back pocket of the governor, they were permitted to build the observatory. According to the narrative, while the Apache opposed the building of the observatories, claiming that the location was an ancient burial ground, the reality was that it was one of the four holiest sites for the indigenous people of the Americas, as the site on Mt. Graham is a portal between dimensions through which alien beings can enter and exit Earth. He indicates that a parallel narrative can be found in the Books of Enoch, an apocryphal book to the Hebrew Bible which speaks of certain men named Watchers who descend from Mt. Hermon, which straddles present-day Syria and Lebanon.

As with any conspiracy, the plot thickens as every dumbass adds his or her flavors to the already thick conspiracy soup. The ever-present and always-coming Planet X/Nibiru/Nemesis/(whatever the new reincarnation of the myth) forever entering the Solar System has been added to the already thick soup. Other conspiracy theorists add to that soup that the Nephilim, a race of demons, are arriving, riding on Nibiru. The conspiracy theorists claim that the Vatican and the Jesuits are in on the secret, waiting to establish the New World Order through the either the ensuing disaster or alien takeover.

Conspiracy in the main

This conspiracy ranked #1 Top 10 crazy Catholic Conspiracy Theories in the Listverse.com's Epic Book of Top 10 Lists.

Being a conspiracy theory with scattered diasporic dots, which make the bare facts in the case, making sense of each of these and then connecting these into a seamless conspiratorial narrative takes a great deal of supposition, conjecture, imagination, and ingenuity.

According to the conspiracy theory, the Catholic Church has been peering into the heavens for the last 500 years in an attempt to find aliens who may in fact be demons or other extradimensional beings. The Catholic Church, not truly being a Christian Church, has sought to find a savior of the world among extraterrestrial beings instead of Christ. To assist in this endeavor, the Catholic Church has been building telescopes around the world in an effort to detect and contact extraterrestrial beings and perhaps other extradimensional entities. The LUCIFER telescope is one such telescope which can be used to peer into space and find new worlds which might be inhabited by intelligent lifeforms. The Vatican is now preparing and monitoring the approaching alien savior from Mt. Graham, the likes of which the world is not prepared for.

According to Horn and Putnam, the Apache mythos tells about a large silvery disk which descended upon Mt. Graham and a bearded man who exited the UFO began creating living things. Then a large dragon accompanied by supermen or giants began killing and raping the indigenous peoples around the mountain in Arizona which the Indians called the Valley of the Sun. The Indians prayed to the Sun god and this Sun god came down and slew all the supermen who were murdering and persecuting the Indians. The Valley of the Sun was named in honor of this god. These supermen were the Nephilim spoken of in the Bible.

Horn and Putnam posit that the Catholic Church is attempting to distort Christians’ (meaning Protestants, i.e. Bible believers) understanding of the gospel and Christian theology. The duo indicate that the giants of Genesis 6 are demons whom the Catholic Church are attempting to channel. However, according to the two conspiracy peddlers, the Catholics see these demons as space brothers who could teach us new technologies. The Catholic Church will attempt to unite all mankind under the one shepherd (the pope) into one flock (the Catholic Church, of course). They also maintain that, according to the Catholic Church’s gospel, Christ was a starchild and a product of an alien abduction scenario, hence the virgin birth and a hybrid Jesus.

The Catholic Church will uses these demons/ETs to evangelize Christians. The initial contact with ETs will not immediately oblige Christians to renounce their faith in God simply on the bases of the new revelation brought by the demons/ETs. The Catholics will have a deal with the Antichrist to provide what looks like reasonable and credible evidence of the new faith. However, as new revelations are confirmed as reasonable and credible, Christians will be forced to renounce their faith and reconcile themselves to the Catholic Church. This is what Horn and Putnam believe is meant by 2 Thessalonians 2:9, ""[the antichrist] whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders" and champion worship an alien god.

Planet X/Nibiru/Nemesis connection

See the main articles on this topic: Nibiru and Planet X

As expected, the Planet X/Nibiru/Nemesis hawkers assimilated the Lucifer telescope conspiracy into their own narratives for the sake of providing more “proof” of the validity of their own conspiracy theories. According to this branch conspiracy theory, the purpose for the Vatican's Lucifer telescope is to monitor the Planet X/Nibiru/Nemesis, a pseudo-astronomical body (PsAB) which is forever entering the solar system. The Vatican, obviously, is monitoring this brown dwarf star, which is a perhaps a binary partner of the Sun or large planet (who knows what the claim is, as there are a wide range of claims), which has a highly eccentric orbit. According to the peddlers of conspiracies, this PsAB is likely to be associated with worldwide cataclysms, mass extinctions, or the sign in the sky of the arrival of aliens, the Nephilim/Anunnaki, the Second Coming, or the rapture. None of the conspiracy peddlers can collaborate and arrive at a consensus as to what this claimed celestial body should be, making everyone else’s task much easier. Given that some theorists claim that the aliens or the Nephilim/Anunnaki are riding on this PsAB, one has to wonder as to how these beings survive the temperature, atmospheric pressure, and gravitational force on the surface of such a body.

Counter-conspiracy

While accepting the conspiracy in the main, some conspiracy peddlers such as Paul Sandhu question if Horn and Putnam are Jesuit collaborators who seek to disseminate disinformation and delusions. They question as to how Horn or Putnam could have had access to this information if they were themselves not Jesuit collaborators. Sandhu believes that they are pawns of the Vatican, which he believes is the most powerful anti-Christian organization. However, Sandhu also believes in a flat earth, that there are really no such things as planets, that the big bang is a Jesuit hoax, and astronomy is a Jesuit science.

Reality

Mt. Graham — map clearly showing the locations of the MPIO and the VATT

The Vatican maintains an observatory on Mt. Graham in southwestern Arizona. The observatory houses the Alice P. Lennon Gregorian telescope with an f/1 reflective mirror. There are a number of organizations, including the Jesuits, who use the Thomas J. Bannan Astrophysics Facility which house the telescope; together which make up the VATT complex.

Nearby sits the Mount Graham International Observatory, which houses the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). The MGIO has no connection to the VATT except the location, although there is collaboration between the partners on projects. The Max Planck Institute installed longslit infrared spectroscopy imagery modules known as the Large Binocular Telescope Near-infrared Spectroscopic Utility with Camera and Integral Field Unit for Extragalactic Research, or LUCIFER, later renamed LUCI. The modules have been renamed LUCI-1 and LUCI-2 so as to be sensitive to feelings of the wingnut Baptist fundamentalists.

The VATT and LBT telescopes have no organizational connection with each other and are not housed in the same building, but are in two separate locations on Mt. Graham. The LUCIFER is not a telescope as many kooks claim, but an imaging module for the LBT telescope owned by an international scientific consortium. The originators of the conspiracy attempt to conflate the LBT and VATT when they are two separate entities owned by independent organizations. As with any scientific research, there are personal exchanges, cross-pollination, and time sharing between the two organizations, which can be expected.

Exaggerated melodramatic theatrics of Horn and Putnam gaining access to the Mt. Graham aside, there is no difficulty in gaining access to the Mt. Graham complex; it is quite easy. From May to October (weather permitting), every Saturday the Eastern Arizona College’s Discovery Park Campus organizes tours of the HHST, LBT, and the VATT. The cost is only $40, which includes lunch and transportation to the site. The only caution is due to the high elevations that person bring with them a jacket or sweater, walking shoes, lip balm, sun screen and sunglasses, camera, Aspirin, bottled water, and Dramamine if you have motion sickness. While Horn and Putnam make his visit out to be some clandestine operation for dramatic effect, ease of public access to the site, apart from the altitude and travel distance, is maintained by the US Forestry Services and the Mt. Graham scientific community.

Consolmagno, who is the past president of the IAU Commission on Planets and Moons, has denied making the statements claimed by Horn and Putnam. He provided a response in his blog regarding the communication with the charlatan Horn. Fun fact to keep in mind, Consolmagno was one of the astronomers who advocated for the demotion of Pluto and caused it to be struck off as a planet, causing all the Planet Xers to have to rename their pet PsAB Planet IX (they have not got around to it as of yet, and most likely will not). Oy vey.

About a year ago, an author (whom I will not name or link to) conducted an extensive interview with me by email. I thought he was a legitimate journalist. However, seeing the ways in which he has twisted, misquoted, and invented utter falsehoods from the things I said, I have come to suspect that he is either a knave or a fool.

There are no Vatican secrets about UFOs. Neither I nor anyone I know has any evidence that extraterrestrials exist. We do not believe that "Jesus is a hybrid" or any of the other bizarre claims that this author makes. He is either seriously deluded, or a deliberate con-man.

Let me phrase this as strongly as I can: I do not know of any credible evidence at all that there has ever been contact of any form between extraterrestrial aliens and Earth. Period. I cannot imagine a circumstance where such contact could be kept secret for very long. And I say this, not only as an active astronomer for 40 years, but also as someone who knows lots of people in the SETI community (who would love to have such evidence), and as someone who's been an officer in the American Astronomical Society and in the International Astronomical Union. If there was something like this going on, we'd all be talking about it. There isn't, and we aren't.

The LBT telescope was partially funded by the German state of Baden-Württemberg, while Erwin Teufel was the minister-president of the state. Teufel means the devil in German. The L.U.C.I.F.E.R. module was named in allusion to him as an insiders' joke.

See also

• Anti-Catholicism

External links

• LUCI — LUCIFER's home page