Groom Lake night panorama circa 2003

One of the threads has gone off topic a bit, and wandered into night photography of Groom Lake. I figured it is better to start a new thread since some may not be follow the other threads as it digressed.

Here is a night shot wide panorama from Tikaboo.



The quality isn't the greatest. This was in the film days when you didn't get the luxury of seeing the image right away. That is, the exposure was a guess based on using a light meter.

If you zoom in, you can see I marked it with vectors. Now a decade later, I have no idea where I got the vector information. I might have logged in while on the peak, or maybe I just guessed after the fact by looking at peaks on a topi map. I know I didn't have a Cammenga compass back then, just the liquid kind.

In any event, you can see the Luxor beam in the Vegas glare. You can sometimes see this with the naked eye from the front gate area. The Mount Charleston Peak is easy to spot. There is a spot on the ground a bit to the left of Mt. Charleston that could be light from the NTS or maybe Indian Springs.

Can barely make out the text on there man

reply to post by weavty1


Download it and zoom in. I don't have the tiff handy. Otherwise I would put on more "angles." That is, don't want to take a jpeg, alter it, then compress it again.

Here are some more recent night shots. They are not from Tikaboo, but the camp site that is just below Tikaboo. Most people don't sleep on TIkaboo since it is windy and there is very little room to pitch a tent. It has a fair amount of critters due to people leaving trash up there. [I put my jacket down on the rocks once and a mouse took up residence. ]

This is Mount Charleston and the glowing area that is probably Creech AFB. The broad white light is Angel Peak. Probably the "youth camp." I've never really figured out what the other lights are on the mountain. The foreground lit lit by moonlight. The air space to the west of the Nellis range is so busy, it would be difficult to not get a trail from a commercial jet.



This is Desert Lake (AKA T-Bird Lake AKA Thunderbird Lake). The sky is white due to the lights of Las Vegas.

reply to post by gariac


Great pics, yet again sir!! Are you up there now?? lol

reply to post by weavty1


Let me check. No, there is no frost on my testicles.

Actually the mountains and hillsides are sometimes under a temperature inversion. That is, they are warmer than being on the ground. You can fiddle with the Desert Research Institute weather stations and verify this. I've run a spreadsheet and about two thirds of the time in October there was a temperature inversion on Tikaboo. Note that during the day, the mountain top is colder, but at night this can be reversed.

I forgot to mention this, but the DRI has had their remote camera uploading imagery for some time. The problem is it points to Badger Mountain, not Groom Lake.
Tikaboo cam

I suppose if you check it in the AM, you could catch the sunrise.

Haha, that's awesome.. Love your sense of humor, man!!

That Tikaboo cam is interesting!! Sure is nice living on the East Coast though.. That way I don't have to get up so early to watch the sunrise on that cam tomorrow!

Keep up with the awesome posts, Gariac!! Your posts are the reason I look forward to checking out ATS, everyday!

Here is an interesting line from the DRI TIkaboo page:

The imagery will also be used by maintenance personnel for planning site visits.

The place isn't really set up for choppers, so I guess the DRI folk have to do the same Tikaboo hike that the Area 51 Watchers make.

There is very little snow on the ground, though if you were to do the hike, you would probably find patches of snow. There is often snow on the peak in April, though this year thus far is record drought conditions.