Time laspe gif of the Tonopah Test Range airspace during a "military" exercise

First of all, I found this on a google search of the Tonopah Test Range, so I can't vouch for it. In fact, nothing in the image screams Tonopah, so you just have to take the word of the photographer.

Tonopah Test Range time lapse
Use the link for the high resolution download since the photo on the main page doesn't have any movement (at least on my system).

Now the military excise could be the Nellis Weapons School graduation (MEP: MIssion Employment Phase). Clearly a flying object (one assumes to be a plane) makes a turn. A wide angle lens is used, so the flying object was tracked over a long path, and based on the movement of the sky, a long time. Perhaps a tanker?

You can see a hill with two red lights on it. Given that this is a wide angle lens, the hill is probably a mountain. Just a guess, but it could be the twin radar domes on Black Mountain.
37°16'59.92"N 116°38'46.05"W

The lights on radar domes are not very bright, but with long exposures, they do show up. If that is Black Mountain, then the photograph was shot looking eastward (say from a location around highway 95).

Then again, you can see the north star in the upper right of the image. The stars will rotate around the north star. So my guess is the shot was taken in the vicinity of Beatty.

a reply to: gariac
I uploaded for ya, interesting.
Will be nice to hear someone like Zaphods input on this.
Thanks for the thread.

a reply to: gariac

Can you explain what were supposed to be seeing that is so interesting? Not trying to troll but I see nothing of particular interest in the timelapse, nothing unsual I should say

a reply to: PrinceDreamer
I see what looks like a meteor doing a square shaped 360.
Kind of.......

a reply to: stosh64

Whoever uploaded also says "It is moving so slow that you can see the Earth's rotation." which I guess is kind of interesting.

I need to work out how long the time lapse is though, to work out how interesting!

Since it is time lapsed, the lights from the aircraft seem to be going very fast.

originally posted by: gfad
a reply to: stosh64

Whoever uploaded also says "It is moving so slow that you can see the Earth's rotation." which I guess is kind of interesting.

I need to work out how long the time lapse is though, to work out how interesting!

I sort of guess it's around 10 degrees change.. 15 degrees is an hour. so I'm thinking 40 minutes?

Very rough guess of course.

a reply to: KnightLight

I agree, seems to be somewhere between 10 and 20 degrees.

Without knowing the altitude obviously it's hard, but that doesn't seem that fast to me.

Helicopter or maybe a drone? Just throwing out a guess.

originally posted by: KnightLight

originally posted by: gfad
a reply to: stosh64

Whoever uploaded also says "It is moving so slow that you can see the Earth's rotation." which I guess is kind of interesting.

I need to work out how long the time lapse is though, to work out how interesting!

I sort of guess it's around 10 degrees change.. 15 degrees is an hour. so I'm thinking 40 minutes?

Very rough guess of course.

That estimate does not seem far off.
So 40 minutes elapsed, that could have been an ultralight aircraft, the pilot holding a flashlight... for all we know.

originally posted by: butcherguy

originally posted by: KnightLight

originally posted by: gfad
a reply to: stosh64

Whoever uploaded also says "It is moving so slow that you can see the Earth's rotation." which I guess is kind of interesting.

I need to work out how long the time lapse is though, to work out how interesting!

I sort of guess it's around 10 degrees change.. 15 degrees is an hour. so I'm thinking 40 minutes?

Very rough guess of course.

That estimate does not seem far off.
So 40 minutes elapsed, that could have been an ultralight aircraft, the pilot holding a flashlight... for all we know.

I did a quick rough measurement with my Speed Square ( cause I'm real scientific like that, LOL) and came up with only about 3 degrees, or 12 minutes.

a reply to: DenyObfuscation

I used my thumb and forefinger on my monitor to take my super-accurate angular measurement.
Now there is some kind of residue on it from a cherry fruit cake that someone brought to the office this morning.
I need a speed square, apparently.

What ever it is, its moving kind slow maybe a chopper?

24 fps and at a 5 second lapse video puts the entire length at around 1hr 2min.

a reply to: hillbilly4rent

Tell me more. Why isn't there an hour and two minutes worth of star field rotation?

a reply to: DenyObfuscation

I added it up going along with the some what standard 24fps the most astrophotographers us in a time lapse, that with the exposure time of each frame usually around 28 to 30 seconds for a fast wide lens such as the one used in this case.

And to add this is my opinion I'm just going of of what I know about astrophotography the earth rotates at 15 degrees an hour.

a reply to: hillbilly4rent

Ok. How much does the field rotate in this vid?

I wasn't using angle of polar alignment as a gage I was going off of the length of the time lapse fps computed with exposure time + buffer time (usually 30" exposure + 3" for buffer) is how I came up with the time.

And may I ask how you got 3 degrees?

a reply to: hillbilly4rent

And may I ask how you got 3 degrees?

Not trying to be coy, but if you know I got 3 degrees you should know how. The answer is in the same post you already read.

How much rotation do you see in this vid?

a reply to: DenyObfuscation

How much rotation do you see in this vid?

I got between 10 and 12 degrees of rotation, just a guestimation.

a reply to: hillbilly4rent

Everything you have posted is guestimation or calcumation based on 'usually-s' and such.

Why not measure the angle?

ETA:

I got between 10 and 12 degrees of rotation, just a guestimation.

Which conflicts with your hour and two minutes answer. Some would consider that a clue that something is off. Wouldn't you?