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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

New Horizons II (1 Viewer)

Binastro said:
Bill,
Before reading your post #99 I had another go at finding the tower.

From my knowledge of the area I thought it might be 800 metres away in the train marshaling yard.

So I carefully looked for shadows and found it.
The shadow is aligned with the train tracks, so wasn't seen earlier.

The distance to the tower is 820 metres.
The height may be 300ft or 250ft. Assuming the highest trees are 60ft and their shadow length. The Sun's elevation may be only 25 degrees or so.
However, now I know the distance I can accurately get the height using a spotting scope.

Although my laser rangefinder should measure to 1100 metres it assumes a good target.
The girder structure obviously didn't give a good return.

The 312m measure was probably to an intervening tree branch. I have even had distant returns from a single leaf rather than what I wanted to measure.

The lights are incredibly bright from 820 metres, but they allow train work at night.
But they should have a cut off rather than polluting the area for miles around.

Regards,
B.
Click to expand...

Success! I admit to using Google Earth for everything from scouting and film research, to looking for spots I may want to paint, as well as just sheer visual curiosity. A pretty powerful tool that is 'free'.

Too bad about the light pollution from the tower. I saw this photo of a coincidence rangefinder that you might enjoy having installed on your roof. I think you would put it to good use!

Cheers,

Bill
 

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Bill,
That is larger than my Barr and Stroud rangefinder, which is around 1.5 metres baseline or a bit bigger.
I got is at a camera fair, but it is out of alignment.
It wasn't expensive.

I would still be interested in a modern accurate new 30cm baseline rangefinder, as laser rangefinders don't always work.

Long camera lenses work up to say 100 metres just reading off the scale.

I have used triangulation to get distances, but it isn't always very accurate.

B.
 
etudiant said:
Zeiss Jena produced the OEM-2, a superb but costly stereo rangefinder which were available for a pittance after the collapse of the East German regime.
There is a discussion of it here:
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/303488-one-of-the-coolest-items-to-arrive-at-my-door/page-3

It may be hard to find now, but by all accounts it is one of the finest pieces Jena ever produced. Well worth looking for.
Click to expand...

Well, a few years ago I bought a few of them on the surplus military auction and still have oneo:)
Sorry Binastro, you'll have to come over here to collect it. It weights over 50 kilo so sending will be expensive.

Jan
 

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jan van daalen said:
Well, a few years ago I bought a few of them on the surplus military auction and still have oneo:)
Sorry Binastro, you'll have to come over here to collect it. It weights over 50 kilo so sending will be expensive.

Jan
Click to expand...

That unit is serial 666 which is the number of Satan............


Lee
 
This afternoon I took the old Kowa 20x50 spotting scope up high.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to measure the total height of the tower as the lower half is hidden by numerous trees.
I estimate the height of the tower as 160ft.
The Google earth shows a large base, maybe concrete.

I need to look at Ordnance Survey maps to get the height of the ground.
I have some old ones, actually historic, but the ground has not moved much locally.
Then I have to use the clinometer to measure the angle to the top of the tower.

I count at least 12 seriously large floodlights at the top of the tower. They give a very bright white light.
They are angled all over the place.
Some point into the sky, which must be a hazard to helicopters with their glare.
Maybe the storms have upset the angles of the lamps.

I reckon that at 20 miles the lights are still as bright as the planet Venus.

Google earth would give much more information if available as stereo pairs. Clearly this is available, but I don't know who has access to these.
But with care it is still very useful in 2D.

Regards,
B.
 
Apparently submarine periscopes used anamorphic lenses to widen the horizontal field of view.

Would anamorphic lenses work in front of binoculars to seriously increase the horizontal field of view?

There were 120 degree eyepieces also on periscopes in the 1940s.

B.
 
Binastro said:
This afternoon I took the old Kowa 20x50 spotting scope up high.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to measure the total height of the tower as the lower half is hidden by numerous trees.
I estimate the height of the tower as 160ft.
The Google earth shows a large base, maybe concrete.

I need to look at Ordnance Survey maps to get the height of the ground.
I have some old ones, actually historic, but the ground has not moved much locally.
Then I have to use the clinometer to measure the angle to the top of the tower.

I count at least 12 seriously large floodlights at the top of the tower. They give a very bright white light.
They are angled all over the place.
Some point into the sky, which must be a hazard to helicopters with their glare.
Maybe the storms have upset the angles of the lamps.

I reckon that at 20 miles the lights are still as bright as the planet Venus.

Google earth would give much more information if available as stereo pairs. Clearly this is available, but I don't know who has access to these.
But with care it is still very useful in 2D.

Regards,
B.
Click to expand...

Google Earth will show you elevation above sea level wherever the cursor touches. Its at the lower right, between 'eye height' and latitude/longitude.

I did manage to catch Mercury a few times, yesterday evening. Once from a parking lot, scanning with 8x42 MHG. Naked eye was iffy, as in barely with averted vision, knowing exactly where to look. Seemed over 20° or so below Venus. Later, at home, it was surprisingly harder, as it was lower in altitude, and still in bright murk. In fact, a pair of stars in Aquarius were as easy to spot, twinkling off to the right (west). At home I used an Ultravid BR 7x42, and put the 65mm scope on it briefly. Then it was dinner time!

Cheers,
Bill
 
Thanks for the info Bill.

I saw Mercury easily this evening in exceptionally good transparency with my distance glasses with Mercury at 5 degrees above horizon and still very easily at 3.5 degrees above horizon.
With many street lights and bright house lights etc. nearby.
Mercury was white rather the the normal pink as seen in England.
There was almost no low level haze, most unusual.

I did use the 8.5x44 binocular initially, but it was super bright in that.
Only used it for seconds before switching to my distance glasses.
I probably saw it without glasses also.

There are far fewer birds now that the tree has gone over the road.
But saw Herring gulls in binocular.

Regards,
B.
 
Jan,
If I had anywhere to put it, I would buy it at 1% of the original price.

What is the maximum listed accurate range?
What is the magnification?

I have ex gov. stuff that cost 0.1% of the original cost.
For some reason they have to get something for them, when it would be easier just to scrap them.

5 dealers bought the Ark Royal aircraft carrier.
It cost a lot just to move her.
I got 3 20inch diameter bearings, which are now used on rotating observatories.

B.
 
Binastro said:
Jan,
If I had anywhere to put it, I would buy it at 1% of the original price.

What is the maximum listed accurate range?
What is the magnification?

I have ex gov. stuff that cost 0.1% of the original cost.
For some reason they have to get something for them, when it would be easier just to scrap them.

5 dealers bought the Ark Royal aircraft carrier.
It cost a lot just to move her.
I got 3 20inch diameter bearings, which are now used on rotating observatories.

B.
Click to expand...

B,

18 kilometers and it is a 14x50.

Regarding the ex gov. stuff it is the same here. Transport costs are by far exceeding the purchage prices.
But......the road to get it is much more interesting than the possession of it:t:

J.
 
Thanks Jan, that is a really capable Zeiss rangefinder.

It would have been nice to have the Ark Royal aircraft carrier in my back yard, but even a Land Rover Defender wouldn't be able to haul her out of the water.

I used to go the these dealers and the stuff they had was amazing.
When enormous quantities were thrown on the skip I tried to save some.
I gave a lot of optics to RAF museums. Even the curators didn't know they existed.
They have probably deteriorated now in unheated hangers.

Some of the Zeiss survey lenses are incredibly high quality.

Regards,
B.
 
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