This stunning nighttime panorama of Area 51 was taken from Tikaboo Peak in the night of October 11-12, 2023 by our long-time member Michał "n01_b4_flash" Rokita. He used a Nikon P1000 camera with a 3000mm optical zoom, mounted on a sturdy tripod with a gear head for panning. In post processing Michał applied a de-interlace filter and other "magic" to achieve this incredible image quality. Scroll down for some bunus shots of fastmovers landing at Area 51 at night.
Special thanks to Michał for sharing another awesome panorama with us! Enjoy...
Area 51 Nighttime Panorama from October 12, 2023. The center taxiway (blue lights) and parts of the lit runway are clearly visible. The new data center and the new dining hall are also easy to identify near the center of the panorama. Click here for an XL version of the panorama
About 20 minutes after the panorama above was taken Michał heard two "fastmovers" cleared to land on the radio. This photo shows the first one landing on runway 32, just past the center taxiway. The top image is the original, the bottom image was cleaned up with a deinterlace filter.
Close-up of the landing fastmover. Looks like a Cessna 180 type aircraft but that would hardly qualify as a fastmover. Not even with a good tailwind...
The second fastmover taxiing north in front of the brightly lit new data center. It is partially covered by a hill in the foreground but the shape could be a match for one of the Groom F-16D models. The top image shows the data center without the aircraft for comparison.