Message posted by Daniel Deibler on June 21, 2010 at 20:14:34 PST:
Hi, I tracked this discussion down through the magic of YouTube Insight. :P Anyway, to answer some of the questions already raised here: At closest approach, the heart of the base was 57 miles out. As far as being planned in advance, it wasn't. I had started recording the scenery about 8 minutes before this when we passed by Vegas. I was going to turn it into a time lapse video of the flight over the desert/mountains when I got home at the request of my significant other. Anyway, I should go before I start talking about the Tonopah Test Range footage (from the same original 20-minute video), though I will leave you with this 3-frame animation of part of three photos I took flying by TTR http://i50.tinypic.com/w7zssw.gif and this 2-frame animation that flips back and forth between one of my photos and a view I reconstructed in Google Earth (amazed at how close they match) http://i48.tinypic.com/2rom8hh.gif . If anyone has any questions, comments, requests, whatever, don't hesitate. I'l check back here later. Or, if you want, you can send me an instant message if you have AIM *shudders*. My sn is DanielJDeibler
There's a pretty detailed thread at ATS about this video. I won't link to it right this second because I have't read the forum rules, and some places don't like it when you link people away to other forums.
The flight was AWE524 (US Airways) from KPHX to KRNO on June 14, 2010. Here's the flight path: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AWE524/history/20100614/2045Z/KPHX/KRNO
and the actual reporting data, minute-by-minute: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AWE524/history/20100614/2045Z/KPHX/KRNO/tracklog
I cut the uploaded video to start a few seconds before I noticed Groom Lake. I don't know what it says about me that I recognized it from this angle without even looking for it, but that's what happened. I did a bit of a double-take (you can see the camera rustling about a bit as I lean forward against the window, to stare at it from 5 inches closer) before zooming in to 20x optical zoom and immediately starting to take 10-Megapixel photos. I wasn't sure until later that it was Area 51. Watching the video, you might notice it looks like I'm filming from the edge of space :P because I ran a number of filters over that video to make it presentable to a general audience. My original photos and videos look like this: http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/172/6/2/Unedited_Area_51_Flyby_Photo_1_by_DanDeibler.jpg
That's actually the first time I've uploaded anything completely unedited from the flyby. All 40 photos are on my dA site (links in the video description) but they have all been edited, much like the video itself, to remove heavy atmospheric haze.
On a clearer day from a higher flight path (if there are any) with a better camera at a higher zoom through a cleaner window with a steadier photographer, you could probably get some decent shots. I was completely unprepared for this. If I'd known I was going to have a window seat on the right side of a flight that had a direct view of the base, I wouldn't have left my tripod in the car at KPHF :P, and I would have bought that super awesome upgraded camera I've been meaning to buy. I also would have gotten a seat in front of the wing. Then I could have started recording earlier (60 seconds earlier, and I would have had a straight, unobstructed shot of the entire base)
In Reply to: Re: Partial View of Area 51 from airliner. posted by Brian Liddicoat on June 21, 2010 at 5:33:53 PST:
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