
Trinity Nuclear Test Site Open House – Saturday, April 6 - basementcat
https://www.wsmr.army.mil/Trinity/Pages/Home.aspx
======
JoeDaDude
In the same day, the Very Large Array has its open house. So get to Trinity as
early as possible (warning: crowds), see as much as you can, and then head 80
miles west to see the VLA. When I went, the guided tours were given by the
Chief Scientist himself!

[https://public.nrao.edu/event/vla-spring-open-
house-2/2019-0...](https://public.nrao.edu/event/vla-spring-open-
house-2/2019-04-06/)

~~~
peter303
One of the fascinating parts of VLA is they allocate observing time in 5
minute chunks. When the next time comes, all 27 dishes move in unison to the
observing region. Its is like a living creature.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
I wouldn’t imagine that every five minutes is allotted to a different
observation? If that were the case the duty cycle would be terrible because
the dishes would spend an inordinate about of time moving.

I could be wrong? Perhaps they’re very fast?

~~~
ygra
I understood it as such that every observation uses integral multiples of
five-minute intervals.

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tezzer
If you're in Las Vegas, the National Atomic Testing Museum is very worth a
visit. The last time I was there they had a traveling exhibit of Soviet
nuclear propaganda that was fascinating, and there's a lot of info on Trinity
and other testing sites. I found the quality of the exhibits to be very high.

~~~
goostavos
One of my favorite museums! It's small, but super well done -- and has a gift
shop filled with neat little stuff (like the Fatman + Little boy earrings I
bought for my girlfriend (which I thought were way cooler than she did...))

I generally avoid Vegas like the plague, but if I ever go back, that's on the
top of the list to visit again.

~~~
tamaharbor
Fatman earrings? Is she still your girlfriend?

~~~
astura
"Fat Man" was the code name for the nuke that was dropped on Nagasaki.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Man](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Man)

"Little Boy" was the code name of the nuke dropped on Hiroshima

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy)

------
jessriedel
For anyone considering going to this: There's not much to see. It's basically
the short stone obelisk you see in the picture, sitting in an otherwise
unremarkable desert. (A fence encloses maybe an acre of surrounding land, but
things look the same inside as out.) There's a small one-story home a few
miles away where the original test was viewed from that you can go inside, but
it's also unremarkable.

I'm really glad I went, but it's more of an intellectual pilgrimage than
anything else.

~~~
IIAOPSW
I met a traveler from an antique land Who said: A vast Obelisk of stone Stands
in the desert... near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a metal drum lies, whose
thickness, And shape, and awe inspiring scale, Tell that its sculptor well the
intent read to let survive within these lifeless things, The force which they
had summoned;

And on the pedestal these words appear: 'I am become death, the destroyer of
worlds' Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck,
boundless and bare The glassified green sands stretch far away

~~~
dreamcompiler
Yeah. That's what it's like.

I've been to Trinity and to Hiroshima. Both shake me from someplace deep.

------
ereyes01
I love this area of New Mexico. Other than Trinity, you can go see:

\- White Sands National Monument (spectacular otherworldly landscape)

\- Cloudcroft and the surrounding nature up in the mountains, including an old
train trestle on a cliff

\- Sunspot solar observatory

\- Ruidoso, which has skiing the right time of the year

\- Three Rivers Petroglyph site, well-preserved rock art created by native
tribes on a hill a few centuries ago

\- Valley of Fire, a dried up lava flow

\- Carlsbad Caverns, a massive cave and national park

EDIT: Forgot to mention very dark and starry skies up in the mountains!

~~~
driverdan
I feel like NM is underrated by people who haven't been there. In addition the
the attractions you mentioned there are very scenic areas with camping and
hiking all over the state. Santa Fe is a great little city right next to an
11,000 ft mountain. Albuquerque is fun too.

I'm currently camping in the mountains close to White Sands. The weather is
great and the area is beautiful.

~~~
ianai
You and OP didn’t mention the Bosque del Apache. It’s a few miles south of
Socorro. Every year thousands of birds migrate to there. It’s a beautiful
sight to behold in the perfect setting to see for miles into the distance.

NM is definitely underrated, but it’s hard for me to not see some problems of
course. It’s got problems from being remote and sparsely populated. It’s a
desert with plenty of water issues/disputes. It’s got good and bad history.
Plenty of things to see and do that are beautiful to behold or experience. But
I’m even more glad it’s not ruined with overpopulation.

------
batbomb
There’s a lot of mixed reviews of New Mexico in this thread. I would encourage
people to go. If you are a fan of the outdoors of Utah and Colorado,
archaeology, and can appreciate the food, I’d highly recommend a road trip.
The Gila Wilderness, White Sands, Lincoln National forest, Albuquerque, the
various Pueblos, Chaco Canyon, Bandelier, Valles Caldera, Abiquiu, Taos, Santa
Fe, Santa Fe National Forest (east part, north of Pecos) are all wonderful
places to visit for a day, or more in the case of the forests if you want to
camp and hike. I personally haven’t been to Carlsbad Caverns, but it’s
probably worth it too, though out of the way.

Even better is to do a giant road trip circuit between the northern parts of
New Mexico abd Arizona, and southern parts of Utah and Colorado. You can also
easily hit San Juan National Forest/Mesa Verde and Durango, Moab and
Arches/Canyonlands/Capitol Reef, Escalante, Zion, and the Grand Canyon without
too much driving between them all.

~~~
MisterTea
I'm sorry you had to post this, but amusingly my coworker who lived in NM
previously, Socorro to be exact (graduated & worked for NM tech), did not have
many nice things to say about the town or NM overall. A terse summary of his
description would be "If you want your car broken into or stolen and/or house
robbed then move to NM."

Though, that's his opinion. I visited with my parents when I was much younger.
We went to Taos Valley and I remember it was a really beautiful place. Ski
during the day and jump in the pool at night.

~~~
batbomb
Socorro sucks. I'd be jaded if I had to live there. My parents pushed me to go
there NM Tech, but I had been going to high school in Utah and would rather go
there for college. NM Tech actually said in their brochures at the time (2003)
that "students often live on campus or in one of the many affordable trailer
parts nearby" or something to that effect.

If it's any indication, I did move back to Albuquerque in 2009 to try to find
a job after graduating with a degree in Physics - because I did miss the
culture and the place, even though I loved Utah too, but I couldn't make it
work at the height of the recession. Utah wasn't much better - I had to take a
part time mobile app QA position, but more of my adult friends were there.

There are pure science jobs available at Los Alamos but they can be a bit hard
to come by, I would consider moving back to Santa Fe for the right position.

I would also say that Albuquerque does have my favorite weather. Winter shows
up but it's not obnoxious, same with summer. September is the best month for a
nice trip

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basementcat
For those in the area, the Spring VLA Open House is also taking place on the
same day.

[https://public.nrao.edu/event/vla-spring-open-
house-2/2019-0...](https://public.nrao.edu/event/vla-spring-open-
house-2/2019-04-06/)

~~~
Avshalom
The VLA is much cooler.

~~~
copperx
Do you mind explaining a bit? I'm trying to decide whether to go to the
Trinity site or the VLA.

~~~
Avshalom
So first: if you're willing to spend the night in Socorro it's pretty easy to
do both. Trinity is about an hour drive and it takes about 2 hours to see it
all (it'd be an hour but you have to wait for the shuttle to the house and
back) then it's 2.5 to 3 hours to the VLA (don't speed through Magdalena, rez
cops love to post up there) so you can be there by early afternoon.

That said. The Trinity site is some plaques, a shack and New Mexico scrub
land; the VLA is (if in a close configuration) a dramatic sight, some plaques
and New Mexico scrub land AND if it's an open house: the chance pick the
brains of operations people.

That's the big difference, open house VLA you can talk to people who's lives
are the VLA; Trinity you can talk to people who volunteered to keep tourists
from doing anything stupid.

~~~
Avshalom
Also Also: feel free to stop by the New Mexico Tech physics department, they
might not admit it but they're all willing to shoot the shit about telescopes
and bombs at the drop of a hat.

~~~
CamperBob2
Agreed, there's lots of interesting stuff to do around that part of the
country if you can finagle the necessary access. Or at least, there was, back
in the 'Star Wars' era.

My first visit to NM was on an ISEF-sponsored trip in 1983, when the science
fair was held in Albuquerque. We didn't visit the Trinity site (or at least I
didn't), but we got to play with a CO2 laser at Sandia Labs, chill out on the
couches encircling the Cray 1 at Kirtland AFB, and watch the NMIMT 'Terminal
Effects' group blow some stuff up in the desert. (Un)fortunately the demo was
conducted with conventional explosives only, but it was still fun to watch.

There was also a gigantic wooden trestle spanning a canyon in the same area,
wrapped in giant Helmholtz coils for testing aircraft under various EMP
conditions. I imagine that's all done via simulation these days.

------
cyberferret
Weird, I feel like I know the place after playing that Infocom adventure
'Trinity' many decades ago. Perhaps one day I will visit the site in person to
complete the circle...

------
peter303
I went a decade ago. You can visit VLA any weekday too.

When I went I could still see some trinitite, the green glass from bomb
surface sand melting.

Also not far away is Roswell with a UFO museum. For the most part it is an oil
production and immigrant town.

Along the way you pass through Lincoln County where Billy the Kid met his end.
There are various legendary events there.

~~~
driverdan
Roswell is worth an afternoon but it's one of the more boring areas of the
state.

------
jsjohnst
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Roswell, NM. There you’ll find a museum
full of humorous oddities and it can be entertaining to check out.

------
peter303
I believe they have restored the first Saturday in October date also
(suspended a few years after 9-11). However that weekend is also the
Albuquerque Balloon Festival. So you have the bonus of viewing this event. But
at the same time competing busy travel arrangements with this very popular
event.

------
dreamcompiler
The Nuclear Museum in Albuquerque is pretty amazing too. It's big, with a lot
to see both inside and out.

------
112012123
It's really a very interesting place to visit, if only to see the vast
emptiness of the test range. I went last time it was open and it was
definitely worth the trip.

Particularly amusing are the ranks of bleachers sitting out in the middle of
the desert (so people can watch weapons tests).

------
chx
Related: does anyone have the lyrics for the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Requiem?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyaLeoX9JlY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyaLeoX9JlY)

------
wizardforhire
Trinitite collection season is upon us again!

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinitite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinitite)

~~~
driverdan
I sure hope not.

> It is now illegal to take the remaining material from the site

You should not be removing anything from government property or parks. Leave
no trace.

~~~
arbitrage
Leave no trace in a wretched and empty monument to man's cruelty to man?

Odd sentiment.

~~~
driverdan
Yes, exactly because of what you said. Remnants should be left for others to
see.

"Leave no trace" wasn't quite the right thing to say since you're going there
to see human traces but the sentiment is clear.

------
sehugg
When I visited years ago, some folks brought a spectrometer and analyzed some
samples. Spoiler: Lots of radioactive elements around. A memorable part of a
Radiation Vacation.

------
maxxxxx
I would go if they reenacted the test. I am generally a pacifist but a nuclear
explosion still must be an awesome sight.

~~~
CamperBob2
It would be environmentally problematic to set off nukes as a tourist
attraction, but I actually think that will need to be considered at some
point. It won't be long before no one alive has seen a nuclear explosion in
person, and I don't think that will be a good thing. The same people who
currently deny the Apollo landings, evolution, vaccines, Sandy Hook and so
forth will move on to "nuke denial."

They will argue that no such bomb could ever have been made, and that
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were false flags, or some bullshit along similar lines.
Or worse, they will argue that nukes are just bigger versions of ordinary
bombs, perfectly kosher for use in any scenario that would otherwise justify
dropping bombs on the enemy of the day.

So an argument could be made that we should light one off in the desert every
Fourth of July and sell tickets, just to pre-empt this particular subculture
of stupidity.

~~~
droithomme
It doesn't really matter that a tiny minority believes that. There's
absolutely no legitimate justified need to reenact nuclear detonations with
actual nuclear detonations to prove it ever happened to deranged low IQ
skeptics. It's OK that we have a handful of deranged low IQ skeptics who have
nonsensical beliefs. It's OK to just ignore them. It's not critical or even
marginally important that society spend much time seriously addressing the
most fringe of their beliefs.

~~~
CamperBob2
_It doesn 't really matter that a tiny minority believes that._

I would've agreed with you until relatively recently. Lately, those people
seem to gain more political power over the rest of us in every election.

I'm not that serious about setting off nukes to educate, impress, or otherwise
remind them, though. For one thing, there's absolutely no reason to believe it
would work.

------
mikorym
TLDR? Link seems to time out.

