Celestial navigation and Machado's five questions

[Orange Anchor]

This is what is fascinating about aviation.

I learned 3 things here:

1. Green vegetation cue to stream or creek
2. Fly down sun to see glint off of water (why can't you see it flying up-sun?)
3. Just when you think 1500 feet is low, some body says, "you can see the whole world from here!):bandit:

Why the "down-sun" for the glint? is it because the sun is in your eyes if you are flying "up-sun"?

thx

Simple. The light will be reflecting off the water. Works at night also if the moon is bright enough. I remember one flt we made from SFO down to LAX and it was a spectacularly bright moon with a clear sky. As he headed down south, the light from the moon bounced off the various waterways inland racing along with us at 500+mph. It was incredible.

As a FAC you learned the area to the point that you could also estimate the number of people who had moved through the area at night. Thin path, very few. More people, the wider the path and the more pronounced.

 

[ppragman]

When flying out in the sticks, if you get lost, you can always fly down stream, flying down stream always takes you away from terrain, and often there's communities on rivers.

 

[beasly]

The military is reportedly very concerned about GPS denial. Thus...
http://fer3.com/arc/imgx/kaplan2.ppt.

Thank you.

I just uploaded to Google docs and browsed it. I will give it a careful read as this is important stuff.

Regarding the "star tracker technology" discussed in the presentation... I heard that "there is an app for that" where you take a picture of the night sky with your phone and it tells you where you are.

 

[ppragman]

Thank you.

I just uploaded to Google docs and browsed it. I will give it a careful read as this is important stuff.

Regarding the "star tracker technology" discussed in the presentation... I heard that "there is an app for that" where you take a picture of the night sky with your phone and it tells you where you are.

Google skymap is kind of like that.

 

[beasly]

Google skymap is kind of like that.

Cool app.

Guess what, though. It uses GPS.

From the video here: http://www.google.com/mobile/skymap/

What could replace it, however is pattern recognition software (I am guessing).
The phone has an internal clock based on its CPU timer.
I am guessing here, but don't these phones have an 'inertial" sensor that detects how the phone is being held? if so, then that is the basis of a sextant.


This is fun.

thx.

 

[nocturnalaviator]

And then there are those who are trimmed for hands-off at 250 AGL after T.O. and planning for "what comes next"

Well there ya go then! Enjoy, sounds like a good and useful project, all the best with it.

 

[beasly]

Well there ya go then! Enjoy, sounds like a good and useful project, all the best with it.

Thanks!

Learned a new word today: ephemeris!

I was chatting with my office mate today about this thread and he used to do surveying.

FWIW, the "ephemeris" comes out every so often for surveyors.


Really looking forward to this subject in the years ahead.

Cheers.

 

[MikeD]

As a FAC you learned the area to the point that you could also estimate the number of people who had moved through the area at night. Thin path, very few. More people, the wider the path and the more pronounced.

As a FAC, I still remember some of my AOs in theatre as well as my own neighborhood here in TUS.

 

[granlistillo]

CPS--Celestial Positioning System..


You heard it here first.


thx.

b.

Star trackers have been in use in manned and unmanned spacecraft for years. I think they designed one for use in the B-52, not sure if they ever installed it, but we used them in navigation simulators in navigator training years ago. Most difficult piece of avionics kit, I had to deal with ever.