[mdlug-discuss] [mdlug] [Fwd: [opensuse-offtopic] And now the Manchurian microchip]

[Aaron Kulkis]

Garry Stahl wrote:
> Aaron Kulkis wrote:
>> You see the same effect with fixed-wing aircraft, too.
>>
>> If it's up in the sky, and you're down on the ground, from
>> most angles, it will look "black"...the only exception
>> being when the sun is at your back, and the plane's
>> angle of elevation, relative to you, is below 60 degrees
>> or so, AND close enough to be more than an irregularly
>> shaped dot.
>>   
> 
> I've caught airliners in my 15x70 Celestron glasses with the sun at a
> low angle.  You can make out quite a few details, if you can hold them
> steady.  A difficult task.

I used to be a Stinger missile gunner (which is categorized
as short range air defence (SHORAD)), and firing the missile,
although a 14-step procedure, is the easy part of qualifying
in that MOS... the difficult part is the aircraft identification
test.  Silhouettes, silhouttes, silhouttes.  Some of the
images we used for training and testing were photographs
(from the ground, of aircraft in the air), but you soon learn
that you can't count on seeing much detail most of the time,
so you just have to learn the outlines, and the WEFT (Wings,
Engines, Fuselage, Tail) characteristics of each aircraft,
and then figure it out from there (i.e. tail... twin tail?
single tail?  T, +, inverted T, or V?  etc.).  Given enough
characteristics, you can eventually narrow it down to a
single aircraft (every type can eventually be introduced
with the line "no other aircraft looks exactly like this one")

The only time we really had any view of details were a few
computer-generated 3-D ray-tracing images (both of some
friendly and Warsaw Pact aircraft).

My unit was 1-138th ADA (stinger) with headquarters and
one battery in Lafayette, Indiana, and the other batteries
also in college towns.  The regular army ADA cadre down at
Fort Bliss hated us because we had the highest recertification
rate in the entire army -- yes, even higher than among the
cadre units!  We also set the range record on the Ballistic
Aeriel Target range.  I think its because so many of our
stinger gunners were of significantly better quality (in
relation to the ASVAB cut off scores for the MOS) than
what most regular army ADA units have available.  It was funny.

> 
> The following attached picture was taken through the lens of one half
> with a 1.3 megapixel digital camera.  The moon doesn't move as fast as
> airplanes.  Yes, I simply held the camera up to the binoculars.  It
> frankly came out better than it deserved to.

Pretty good shot.