Area 51 satellite?

So I just downloaded the new Google Earth + Sky 4.2 and was poking around Area 51 when I noticed the following image of a satelite dish:



Now, one of the neat little features of Google Earth + Sky is that by clicking a button you can see a view of the heavens from the point you are looking at on Google Earth. I thought maybe there's an off chance I could see what this dish is pointing at (I'm thinking SETI, maybe they're listening for a WOW signal and might actually have an idea of where to search) Not expecting to find anything at all, I click the sky button and it points just to the right of the constellation Auriga. I noticed a fuzzy white circle there and zoomed in on it. This is what we see:



I think this is a shadow cast by a satellite. I don't know much about how satellites work so I don't know if the dish is actually picking up signals from this particular satellite or not, but if so it would be cool if we could find out what this satellite is for. Anyway guys, tell me what your thoughts are on it.

The dishs only point upward when they are not in use. I don't know what they are actually used for (I'd hazard a guess that they're not for searching for ET life) but they seem to work in tandem (www.lazygranch.com...).

reply to post by BloodCoveredSaint


There's actually many of those here and there. And it's not exact when you flip to sky. I noticed that flipping from earth to sky and back will land you several degrees off.

[edit on 24-8-2007 by EBE 17]

I'm not sure why Groom Lake has a satellite set up. Generally the military uses a few earth stations then sends the data via landline. With UAVs, satellite comms become more common, but these dishes pre-date UAVs. In any event, the dishes don't have to be at Groom Lake as I stated earlier. For example, the NASA Predator B that is studying fires is using Nada Ames as the earth station, even though the flight originated at Edwards.

On a helicopter ride over the bay area, I snapped a few photos of Nasa Ames/Blue Cube/Moffett Field
www.lazygranch.com...

I haven't tried the new rev of google earth, but I suggest anyone interesting in satellites check out
www.heavens-above.com...

Sorry for the one liner but, why wouldn't Area 51 have satellite protection and additional surveillance?

Originally posted by antar
Sorry for the one liner but, why wouldn't Area 51 have satellite protection and additional surveillance?

What do you mean by satellite protection? If you mean screening from satellite imagery then the proliferation of images proves otherwise. As far as we know, the base are aware when a satellite is overhead and take any sensitive test items under cover.

Originally posted by antar
Sorry for the one liner but, why wouldn't Area 51 have satellite protection and additional surveillance?

How many bases have the huge satellite dishes? Every base has two comm centers. One is for aircraft. The other is base comm (UHF, often trunked), HF, and fltsatcom (UHF helix antennas). Most bases don't have huge satellite dishes. Edwards certainly has them, and they run Groom Lake. [This dates back to the sercurity manual at the UFOmind.com website. If you haven't been there, you should, as it has THE fundamental information on Groom Lake. The website is old unfortunately. However, Glenn did good research, keeping speculation to a minimum.]

hey there. imbetter new to this whole area 51 and ufo thing. but its something i have a fond fasination about. today i decided to scan through google earth around the site of area 51 and nellis air force base area and found a few interesting formations and shapes located in and around the supposed mysterious base.

although can someone aid me in the way to upload picture to a thread i am clueless. first time i used a forum site. these picture are worth a look.

i want someone to have look and at least make a educated guess to what they might be. theres a slight possibilty they could be natural weather formations but im unsure.

Originally posted by skygazer07
hey there. imbetter new to this whole area 51 and ufo thing. but its something i have a fond fasination about. today i decided to scan through google earth around the site of area 51 and nellis air force base area and found a few interesting formations and shapes located in and around the supposed mysterious base.

although can someone aid me in the way to upload picture to a thread i am clueless. first time i used a forum site. these picture are worth a look.

i want someone to have look and at least make a educated guess to what they might be. theres a slight possibilty they could be natural weather formations but im unsure.

With google earth, sending the lat/lon is sufficient. In google earth, click on the "pushpin", drag the push pin with your mouse, then cut and paste the latitude and longitude from the pop up box.

You can turn on Google Earth Community to get some guidance on things in the Nellis range. Often the Google Earth Community markings are wrong, probably put there by someone who has never been to the area.

PS: Please fix your shift key.

whats up with my shift key???

anywho.... i i used google maps not earth sorry i should have stated that before. and i have already taken jpegs of the specific areas in which needs to be observed. it could be a load of crap in the end but thats why i want you guys to have a look and see exactly wat is going on. if anything??

Theres been a million threads on weird spots on Nellis Range, try using the search box and seeing if any of them have been covered before.

Even if they havn't this thread is about the satellite dishes at area 51, anyone can start a new thread.

maybe its part of their "Ultra Directv Package" the one where you get all the top secret channels and stuff with no commercials whatsoever. that would be awsome...watching the whole John Doe series w/o commercials.