The Archer Observatory is in actuality not an Observatory at all but instead a secret scientific base installed by Admiral Robert Lyon in the early days of his Admiralty.  It's forte is experiemental forms of energy, but all of that is a carefully constructed facade to mask it's true purpose.  Located at Sunburst point, the caretaker of the base is charged with alerting Starfleet and Lyon himself of appearances of strange objects out of nowhere.  During the new year celebration at Stardate 52000.0, one such object came through an energy vortex and destroyed the station seconds after Admiral Dennis Winslow sent a message to Lyon.