You can see one of these up close - both the device, and the airplane! - at the Evergreen Aerospace Museum in McMinnville, OR. They also have on display another Blackbird payload labeled DEF-H. It’s a nondescript white box which you are allowed to look at, but not allowed to know what it does. XD
The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
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Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#12You can see one of these up close - both the device, and the airplane! - at the Evergreen Aerospace Museum in McMinnville, OR. They also have on display another Blackbird payload labeled DEF-H. It’s a nondescript white box which you are allowed to look at, but not allowed to know what it does. XD
(The real question being, of course, what is the DEF-G?)
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#13Simply amazed by the fact that something similar to "star trackers" as we know them today goes back to the 60s...
um, doesn't the sextant go back much much further than the 60s?
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#14Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#15But now that I do astrophotography regularly it's just another tool that I use. It's super simple to do, I can take a photo of the night sky, and if I know the focal length and pixel size of my camera I can figure out exactly where my telescope is pointed in seconds, with an accuracy 2.5 arcseconds.
You can even do it blind (without knowing any details about the telescope/camera) though that takes a couple of minutes.
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
The F22 had an unintentional problem of being unable to cross the international date line, which was discovered when attempting to fly from Hawaii to Japan. Given that it may very well be better to assume that anything untested doesn't work at all and to live within those restrictions.
“Unable”? How did this manifest?! > Given that it may very well be better to assume that anything untested doesn't work at all and to live within those restrictions. There are an infinite number of untested cases though. Figuring out the important ones is the hard part, otherwise they likely would have been identified and fixed in development.
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#17Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
The F22 had an unintentional problem of being unable to cross the international date line, which was discovered when attempting to fly from Hawaii to Japan. Given that it may very well be better to assume that anything untested doesn't work at all and to live within those restrictions.
“Unable”? How did this manifest?! > Given that it may very well be better to assume that anything untested doesn't work at all and to live within those restrictions. There are an infinite number of untested cases though. Figuring out the important ones is the hard part, otherwise they likely would have been identified and fixed in development.
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#19Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#20When I first heard of astro-nav (for missiles) I thought it was so future sounding, like star trek. But now that I do astrophotography regularly it's just another tool that I use. It's super simple to do, I can take a photo of the night sky, and if I know the focal length and pixel size of my camera I can figure out exactly where my telescope is pointed in seconds, with an accuracy 2.5 arcseconds. You can even do it…