Now spot UFOs/UAPs?
Show HN: I built a DIY plane spotting system at home
11–20 of 87 posts
Re: Show HN: I built a DIY plane spotting system at home
#12You can see from the photos how people might mistake planes for drones or UAP's.
Not criticizing you but it will never not be funny to me that crazy people have tried to legitimize seeing alien spaceships by renaming them from UFOs to UAPs. It’s like the conspiracy theorist version of unhoused.
The problem is you need a term for "flying thing we saw but weren't able to identify and/or categorize" (which is certainly a legitimate need) but every time you start using it this will increasingly change meaning to "aliens and such are zooming around and doesn't want you to know" (completely regardless if it's factually true or not - nobody is going to want to use an alternative term someone sets aside for "crackpots" in either case) until it gets to the point people don't even associate the term with what it was created for again.
Re: Show HN: I built a DIY plane spotting system at home
#13related: automated Las Vegas plane spotting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5PtT7KdlKc this person has some sort of OpenCV setup from a high-rise view. (bonus: Air Force One is currently there)
I'm kind of surprised that they would park it next to other planes like that. Especially with what appears to be no ground troops surrounding the plane.
Re: Show HN: I built a DIY plane spotting system at home
#14I recommend to not show dates as it can easily help triangulate your location of where this Pi is running, and with the internet crowd, doxxing yourself is never a good idea.
How much accuracy can you possibly get from a 600x600 image?
Re: Show HN: I built a DIY plane spotting system at home
#15You can see from the photos how people might mistake planes for drones or UAP's.
Um, no, I can't actually. Like, not even close to being able to relate to what you're suggesting. These are all single frames and frozen in time. Watching any of these actually moving would even reduce that possibility even further.
Re: Show HN: I built a DIY plane spotting system at home
#16related: automated Las Vegas plane spotting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5PtT7KdlKc this person has some sort of OpenCV setup from a high-rise view. (bonus: Air Force One is currently there)
I'm kind of surprised that they would park it next to other planes like that. Especially with what appears to be no ground troops surrounding the plane.
>I'm kind of surprised that they would park it next to other planes like that
The extreme zoom of the camera makes everything look close together. In reality it's probably quite far from most other planes.
>Especially with what appears to be no ground troops surrounding the plane.
Why would you have them stand outside to guard the plane when the airport is already fenced off, and has surveillance/security? Even if they do need people guarding it, it doesn't make sense to stand outside. Waiting inside or in a nearby SUV would be much more comfortable for the guards.
Re: Show HN: I built a DIY plane spotting system at home
#17I recommend to not show dates as it can easily help triangulate your location of where this Pi is running, and with the internet crowd, doxxing yourself is never a good idea.
How much accuracy can you possibly get from a 600x600 image?
If you know the flight and the date and time you can easily pinpoint exactly where the plane was and where it was heading. Not incredibly challenging at that point to narrow in on roughly where the photos were taken from.
Re: Show HN: I built a DIY plane spotting system at home
#18Re: Show HN: I built a DIY plane spotting system at home
#19I recommend to not show dates as it can easily help triangulate your location of where this Pi is running, and with the internet crowd, doxxing yourself is never a good idea.
How much accuracy can you possibly get from a 600x600 image?
From the regular images, probably not a lot. But if you see a plane crossing in front of the moon or the sun, you could determine a ground track of the shadow of the plane. If you get that with two different planes, you probably have a pretty accurate position (a few hundred meters). Combined with the image of the setup, showing a balcony, someone could probably find the exact location.
Re: Show HN: I built a DIY plane spotting system at home
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
How much accuracy can you possibly get from a 600x600 image?
If you know the flight and the date and time you can easily pinpoint exactly where the plane was and where it was heading. Not incredibly challenging at that point to narrow in on roughly where the photos were taken from.
>If you know the flight and the date and time you can easily pinpoint exactly where the plane was and where it was heading.
You'd still need reference data from the photo to triangulate where it was taken from. A blurry 600x600 photo is going to have plenty of uncertainty.
>Not incredibly challenging at that point to narrow in on roughly where the photos were taken from.
Most people probably don't care as long as it doesn't pinpoint a specific address.