Comments on: 1955 NV A-bomb tests as seen from dowtown LA

By: Tim

Tim — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 03:07:19 +0000

I agree that you’re definitely not seeing the actual cloud there, what you’re seeing is a general lighting of the atmosphere. Ever drive into a city at night, where you can see the sky glow before you ever actually see any part of the city? Same effect.

By: Norman Kraetsch

Norman Kraetsch — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 17:55:00 +0000

Raised in Oak View, CA, about 50 miles north of L.A., my dad used to get us up early in the morning and have us look east. Yes, there was indeed a bright flash in the sky, similar to a sunrise. We got up early to view several of these tests. At my age then, I would rather have slept in.

By: KateCoe

KateCoe — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 15:29:33 +0000

The photos are real–both the Times and the Herald covered the stories. Plenty of people are around–I just asked Charles Perry at the Times about the tests and he remembered getting up to watch–lots of people did.
The tests weren’t secret.

By: sean bonner

sean bonner — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 13:55:32 +0000

I have a really hard time believing that an entire series of photos in the public archives, of very notworthy and written about event would be fake. These photos weren’t just released, they’ve been sitting at the library for over 50 years, someone just noticed them and pointed them out. Read the discriptions on the other photos, lots of talk about how half the horrizon was as bright as day. I’m not doubting their validity at all.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 13:49:58 +0000

That bubble also would have had to been pretty damn bright to have that kind of contrast with the night sky with all of the forground light… it is most certainly a fake….

By: mark

mark — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 04:30:33 +0000

Additional info why this might be real — this 3/7/55 test (code named Turk) at 43 kilotons was the second largest yield ever tested up to that date, so the Oppenheimer papers reference may have been for a similar but much smaller test on a different date. Most 1955 tests were a fraction of this yield (1-8 kilotons).

By: mark

mark — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 04:08:53 +0000

I think the photo is likely real. If the light lit the horizon in Tucson, it could have this larger glow in LA. Tucson is twice the distance from the test range that LA is. Don’t believe me? — Search for “Yucca Lake, NV” on Mapquest and zoom out. This also may be, instead of the actual blast, simply a lingering dome of particulate matter high in the atmosphere generated by the bomb blast that would have reflected moonlight, starlight, etc. (as in after a volcanic eruption). Depending on the position of the moon (i.e. in western sky) it could have reflected back to LA but Tucson could have been in the shadow of the dust cloud, therefore no reflection. The V could very well have been a flaw in the original film or development.

By: rock

rock — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 02:15:59 +0000

Dude!
This photo is superimposed!
The cloud diameter from L.A. would have been MUCH smaller. That bubble was from at least ten miles from Trinity Site.
Also, the signature “V” anamoly at the top was was due to a film anamoly. A VERY DEAD giveaway.
Come on! basic high school physics would prove it!
Distance, Curvature of the earth etc.
If anything, it would have been the black plume that could have been from L.A. in the darkness. Only the sound would have been heard if that was possible.
According to the Oppenheimer papers, the blast was barely heard as a stick if dynamite in Tuscon and other areas in Arazona and the light only lit the horizon. Within ground zero, it was different and it lit the sky like you show it.
Now go to L.A. the distance is great. If a sight of the mushroom cloud was visable, it would prove that the earth was flat.
Though I was not even a glimmer in my mothers yye whrn it occured. My physics training says that that the photo is a fraud.
Prove me wrong and I will retract my statements.

Cheers

By: KateCoe

KateCoe — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 16:58:05 +0000

If you have ProQuest or go to the public library, you can read the stories of the day. In one of the photos, the man pointing is reporter Jack Smith of the Herald. Yes, that Jack Smith.