Atomic Testing Museum; Area 51: Myth or Reality

The Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas is going to have an exhibit about Area 51 in March. There isn't a whole lot of information on their website. I got in invite in the snail mail to what I guess is the opening event for the exhibit, but it had even less information.

www.nationalatomictestingmuseum.org...

They have a video on the page. They also stole a few of my photos. Maybe I can get in for free if I promise not to sue. ;-)

You'll see this photo in the video:



The page also has a hack of the "G-Man" from the game Half Life. (Oh the hours I spent playing Half Life and Half Life 2.)

Myth or Reality? Really? Are they still holding on to that bull$h!t hand?
You can see the craters on Google Earth from all the testing. Hell, you can see the base from Google Earth now. I remember a few years ago when Area 51 was covered by a cloud... the only cloud for hundreds of miles in any direction in fact. Once they moved Area 51's "good stuff" the cloud was gone.

I don't know. There are a lot of "former" employees with strikingly similar claims to all just be myths and stories in my book.

It's a little late to watch the vid now, from where I am, but I'll be sure to check it out in the morning.

Anyway, be sure to get credit for your photos. They're profiting from your work, and that's a big no no in my book.

As I recall, this will be an 18-month-long exhibit that has received a great deal of support from real former Area 51 personnel. It will address some of the myths surrounding the Groom Lake test site while highlighting the reality. Throughout the year, there will be occasional events including panel discussions, lectures, and book signings. It is significant that an exhibit about Area 51 is being treated seriously by a National Museum that is a Smithsonian affiliate. This is major progress, in my opinion.

reply to post by gariac


Cool Image!. There appear to be two lines at the same angle coming up from the horizon. Are those distant contrails? The semi continuous white light appears to be an aircraft light in the next valley over?...

reply to post by Virgil Cain


I originally thought they were contrails. Maybe J158 on the left and J9 on the right. But given they have the same length and tilt, I think they are star trails.

The horizontal line for sure is related to the range. Maybe a chopper? UAV. Hard to say. I'm also not sure if it is the next valley over or inside the NTS.

Getting physical evidence (at least of the electromagnetic flavor) from the range is easy. Analysis is much more difficult.
The range has many users, of which Groom is just one. In a way, it makes great sense to put Groom Lake in the middle of the NTTR. The Nellis or NTS activity provides cover for Groom. If the base were in some remote place like Dugway, virtually all flight would be attributed to test articles.

So that light in the sky...is it a secret aircraft test or a flare? Well, lots of flares are released over the NTTR. This isn't quite like hiding in plain sight, but similar.

Looks like the other photo of Groom Lake at night was stolen from Trevor Paglen. I checked and he didn't grant permission to use it.
jmcolberg.com...

You would think that a facility with a budget, as opposed to all the other low budget websites that swipe photos on the internet, would attempt to contact the copyright holders. I grant free use all the time if somebody gives me a reason why they need it. [I got a real chuckled when the BLM wanted my photographs of repeater sites for some sort of internal use. They didn't want to send somebody out to those hell holes to take the shots. But at least they asked.]

Now I suspect the museum didn't bother to get permission for the "alien autopsy" stills either. That will probably get them in trouble since Fox has lawyers.

reply to post by gariac


Star trails would make sense. I was assuming the glow on the horizon was sunset and now I realize it's probably Las Vegas and the length of the exposure was much longer than I originally thought.

Have all of Paglen's books - even a signed copy of "Invisible". You all do good work for those of us who can't make it out there ourselves. Keep up the good work!

ETA: As some others have said, taking your images for commercial use without permission is bad news, I hope you bring this to their attention...

reply to post by Virgil Cain


When on Tikaboo, the glow from Vegas is towards your left and slightly behind you. in general, if you do long exposures shortly after sunset, there is still plenty of glow in the sky even though you think it is dark. The Provia film I used tended to have a very sensitive red layer, while the other layers had greater reciprocity error. When you shoot with a DSLR, the cast isn't as great.

I assume sunlight is bounced around the atmosphere towards the dark sky from where the sun is shining. You have to wait a few hours after sunset for the sky to really be dark. The sky looking towards Groom Lake from Tikaboo is reasonably dark, that is absent from city lights. But there is plenty of light from Vegas at all hours if you look in that direction.

If you are at the front gate looking towards the base, the Vegas glow is strong. Not like moonlight, but you can photograph the general area with exposures in the minutes and get a decent shot. Night vision works well with the Vegas glow. The difficulty in doing night shots is focusing. If you have at least one light bulb in the scene, then no problem. You just focus until the bulb looks as small as possible. But for a scene without lights, you are better off just focusing on a star, i.e. put the lens at infinity, and hope for the best.

reply to post by gariac


Your explanation occurred to me after I posted - That is that the glow was too red to be city lights and thus must be remnants of the sunset - Especially if you started the exposure not too long after dusk. I'm not familiar with the terrain around there, so it's difficult for me to judge the directions in images although by looking at more and more of them, I'm starting to figure it out...

I imagine with most of those long range images, the focus would simply be infinity and thus doable in a very dark environment, but I suppose it also depends on the lens your using. Thanks for the reply...