Licorne 2
This is the second picture of a series of four of the Licorne thermonuclear test in French Polynesia. Thanks for correcting the error, I had quite contradicting evidence, a search in Google showed many of those pictures when searching for Canopus. My mistake.
This is a scan of a (digitally restored) hardcopy of a picture taken by the French army which could be purchased in Tahiti at that time.
Don't forget to have a look at Phil Plait's blog entry on Bad Astronomy about the little pareidolia well hidden inside the flames - blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/08/13/nukeid...
Comments and faves
romainguy, cad3nas_0_o, Fermion, tonica, and 624 other people added this photo to their favorites.
mothergrinninbird (61 months ago | reply)
Any idea how far the cloud is from the photographer? 10 miles?
sennewald (56 months ago | reply)
WOW!
Hey Pierre J, thank you for sharing these high resolution images with us. I really like the dust on the image, it gives it a vintage photo quality. I am glad it wasn't removed while digitally restoring the image.
jetteroheller (56 months ago | reply)
That ring of clouds flying away from the explosion is amazing.
Pierre J. (56 months ago | reply)
sennewald : actually I removed the most visible specks and the most annoying dust. The rest was not that visible, so indeed, this gives a kind of vintage taste.
Still the resolution of the positive is quite respectable since this picture was only a 10 x 15
Dan Zeta (56 months ago | reply)
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called I, Witness (Global Photojournalism), and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.
R. Ajala (56 months ago | reply)
this a very nice shot!congrats!
duckinwales (56 months ago | reply)
Beautiful and terrifying : 0
uxcreative (56 months ago | reply)
terrifying yes but so beautiful. Thanks for posting/sharing!
Tobalo (55 months ago | reply)
La ostia con los franchutes!!!!!
gabelogan_dt (55 months ago | reply)
Wow!
funkeemunkee (55 months ago | reply)
That test was actually called 'Licorne': www.atomicforum.org/france/1970.html#licorne
wools (55 months ago | reply)
I've loved these for a while.. anyway, some of us have screen resolutions well beyond 1600x1200.. Do you have any higher resolution copies?
brendonmilligan07 (55 months ago | reply)
This would have been awsome to see a huge 914 kilotons nuclear blast.
brendonmilligan07 (55 months ago | reply)
Check out my site... I have a bunch of rarely seen photo's of Nuclear Weapons Test and Bombs from different countries.
E-ville81 (54 months ago | reply)
very intresting the way the clouds seem to be getting the hell out of there.
Bessaroo (53 months ago | reply)
This is just plain amazing!! It's kind of scary too.
dinoprabak (48 months ago | reply)
mannn take a look at the Blast wave... it forces the clouds around to form a circle ... N r those Splinters ??? the tiny orange spots visible in larger pic ... Jus wonderin cos nva heard of splinters travelin this far
Dr Nigel (46 months ago | reply)
Wow! Just Wow!
SHANstudio.net (46 months ago | reply)
wwowowow!!
[Soren] (46 months ago | reply)
Beautiful and terrifying, indeed.
ravenbryant553 (44 months ago | reply)
hmm..... where was this? Anyway,um,thats nuclear explosion alright.
Kirpernicus (43 months ago | reply)
This is amazing, great series of shots.
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Eye Candy!, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
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Seen on your photo stream. (?)
securitel (39 months ago | reply)
J'ai toujours crains une la bombe et là, on peut dire qu'il y a de quoi flipper, je vais faire passer les annonces a tout le monde
ivorytower54 (36 months ago | reply)
I'd like to use this image in a Chapter of original material that I am adding to a Public Speaking Textbook that I'm writing. You & your father would be attributed. This is a small custom publication with a limited run. I wouldn't be able to pay anything, but you would get a publication credit.
Thanks,
Jason Stone
Department Chair, Humanities, Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City.
esto@osuokc.edu
stallspin1 (22 months ago | reply)
I've been looking for a better copy of this photo for years. If you look at a bigger print, you can see the image of the Virgin Mary in the fireball on the left with her arms open. If you have a real good image of this photo, you can see her looking down at a Crucifix. I've showed the image to a lot of people and some see it and some don't. I would like to get a high def. copy of this image, possibly from the original negative. Any help would be appreciated.
Pierre J. (22 months ago | reply)
It's not the virgin mary, it's Jim Morrison !
This photo was invited and added to the UNUSUAL YOUNG group.
reparation-iphone (16 months ago | reply)
Sympa l'effet. Je crois que je vais mettre cette superbe image, d'explosion, en fond d'ecran sur mon iPhone.
This photo was invited and added to the 50,000 Views Invitation Only group.
This photo was invited and added to the BLAST! group.
garfield H (4 months ago | reply)
This image conveys man obsession with ripping the heart out of plane earth.
www.flickr.com/photos/garfield_h/galleries/72 157627106902...