The infamous Horney's sign, now done in green.
This is some sort of sensor located near the hot spring by Crystal Spring. The antenna is a bit hard to see, but it is pointing upwards for satellite communications. It is circularly polarized, i.e. the antenna looks like a series of "X"'s on a rod.
While driving on Route 6 towards Tonopah, I saw a car with it's headlights flashing alternately driving in my lane. This is typically how the Nevada Highway Patrol drives ahead of wide loads. I pulled onto the shoulder and the officer in the NHP vehicle stopped to tell me a wide load was coming and to wait about 5 minutes. I asked how wide and he said "it's really really big" and drove off. Now I'm thinking really really big? Maybe Bill O'Lielly's mouth or Sean Hanity's ego. I hardly had time to dig out the camera before the load arrived, which is why I didn't photograph the front but the rather the back. It is a bucket from some type of Caterpillar earth moving equipment. The cryptic message on the bucket is in the 2nd photo.
The MCY non-directional beacon is located at Desert Rock Aiport on the Nevada Test Site, a bit to the west of Area 51. It broadcasts at 326Khz. This is in a navigation band below the AM broadcast band. This recording was made in California, about 330 miles from the beacon. It's like Area 51 is calling me.
Lat/Long: 36-37-38.838N / 116-01-39.114W (36.6274550/-116.0275317)
The output below is how the waveform looks in Soundforge. It was post processed through a digital bandpass filter centered at the tone frequencyof 1035hz. Click on the image to hear the audio.
(Morse code for MCY)
Contrails seen from the Cedar Pipeline Ranch.
Transit case for the AGM-12B/C missile found near Queen City Summit.
You can't get a good cup of coffee around the Nellis ranges. This is one attempt to get a decent brew. Left to right we have a French press, thermal mug, Smoky Sam, Esbit stove and a Target tea kettle. The Smoky Sam is to chase away those pesky airplanes that show up too early in the morning.
Smokey Sams are mock surface to air missiles. Technically, this is what remains of the Smokey Sam after it has been launched. The remains can be found in public areas near the Cedar Pipeline Ranch.
This "nose-cone" may be part of all smokey sams, though this is the only one I found that looked like this.
N-number : N185XP Aircraft Serial Number : BB-952 Aircraft Manufacturer : BEECH Model : B200 Engine Manufacturer : P&W Model : PT6A-60A Aircraft Year : 1979 Owner Name : UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Owner Address : 232 ENERGY WAY NORTH LAS VEGAS, NV, 89030-4199 Type of Owner : Government Registration Date : 03-Feb-1986 Airworthiness Certificate Type : Restricted Approved Operations : Aerial Surveying
The next photo is from January 2010.
N-number : N344GW Aircraft Serial Number : 344 Aircraft Manufacturer : GULFSTREAM AMERICAN CORP. Model : G-1159A Engine Manufacturer : ROLL-ROYCE Model : SPEY MK 511-8 Aircraft Year : 1982 Owner Name : UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Owner Address : PO BOX 5400 ALBUQUERQUE, NM, 87185-5400 Type of Owner : Government Registration Date : 23-Dec-1999 Airworthiness Certificate Type : Standard Approved Operations : Transport
Interesting shadow on public land as seen from the Power Line Overlook. This is probably the Castle Rock formation.
Seriously long tailed lizard found hanging out by the Power Line Overlook. Check out the black and white collar.
Cool looking piece of shale found near the border of Area 51. This may be a space alien footprint. OK, OK, a remote possibility.
This "bluebird" was spotted at Indian Springs. It appears to be a SU-27.. There were 3 similar planes at Indian Springs at the time. Since no tail number can be discerned, perhaps they are just photo targets for the Predators that fly in the general area.
Precision approach radar at Indian Springs. [Thanks to Aeroframe for IDing the hardware.]
Helicopter on Mt. Sterling investigating photographer on mountain.
This is one of the roads leading to the Yucca Mountain Project. This particular area is mildly radioactive, reading about 50uR/hr.
This unusual communications van was spotted at the Black Rock gas station.
CSI fans will notice my reflection in the rear window of this truck, or some really tiny guy is locked inside it.
If you find the item on the left in the desert, it came from one of the flares used by the planes in Red Flag. It is a ceramic item that is part of the flare ignition system. Often times you will find thick foil bags where the flammable powder is contained. The item on the right may have been dropped by one of the pilots.
The Alien Fresh Jerky stand used to be at the intersection of the ET Highway (technically 318) and 93. Everyone figured that after all the aliens in the area were turned into jerky, they shut down the business. However, it turns out there are still plenty of aliens in need of converting to human food, but in the Mojave desert town of Baker. [Goofy color due to taking the photo at dusk.] In case you were wondering, yes, it is true: alien jerky tastes just like chicken.
The famed "white bus" (photo elsewhere on this page) sits outside the Lincoln County Courthouse when it is not transporting workers. The terraserver caught it sleeping in the parking lot, but you have to know where to look. Given the waypoint of the courthouse and a program called ExpertGPS, which downloads terraserver images, finding the white bus was pretty easy.
Other than the camo dudes, you need to look very hard to see evidence that there is a base at Groom Lake. In the photo below, three light sources in the area can be detected. Image processing is done so that the light sources show up as black dots. Number 1 is at Bald Mountain, where the facilities can be seen from the ET highway and could be dismissed as a FAA radar site. Light source number two is probably from a camo dude.. The source of light at site 3 is the Papoose Mountain radio site.
The above photo is a composite of the two photos below, and unless you really want to know how the photo was done, I'd suggest skipping to the next section.. The photo on the left was done as a 8 minute exposure using only existing light, which at the time was starlight. The light sources there are white dots. The photo to the right was done with moonlight with a 4 minute exposure. The combined photo above is the multiplication of the inverse of starlight photo and the moonlight photo
