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Satellite?

Just to pursue the idea of a US Navy project a little further, here is an article on the work of the US Naval Research Laboratory: https://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/jom/9807/rath-9807.html Note in particular the section on Radar-Absorbing Materials (RAM), including this: The first Gulf War...

Thanks. I don't think I had heard of Depth of Focus. I've heard of Depth of Field, but apparently they are not the same, as explained here: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/depth-of-focus-vs-depth-of-field#what-is-depth-of-focus I'll leave this one to the experts from now on!

Not sure what you mean. If we're talking about autofocus, if I understand correctly this is partly a mechanical process involving moving parts in the camera: Source: https://www.giffgaff.com/blog/how-does-auto-focus-work-on-your-smartphone/#:~:text=Essentially, it's an auto-focus,based on...

Robinson, the photo expert, claimed that the 'UFO' was in better focus than either the fence and trees, which he thought were nearer to the camera, or the Harrier (jet), which he thought was further away. He also thought the UFO was closer to the jet than to the fence, etc, without giving much...

As a variant on the idea of a balloon designed to model relevant features of a secret aircraft, without using the aircraft itself, how about a drogue, towed behind another aircraft? There are at least two obvious objections to this: 1. a drogue wouldn't hover, still less shoot up at high...

I think that assumes the model is hanging from a tree. It might be dangled from a fishing rod (or similar) closer than the trees, of course with the rod out of shot. The difficulty would be to get the 'thread' invisible against the sky. I just tried stretching a piece of white cotton thread...

The UK government (and probably others) throws away (or shreds, incinerates, etc) a lot of files, simply to save space. There is usually a requirement that after a specified period every file is reviewed by a mid-ranking official and then destroyed unless there is some reason of policy or...

According to the Wikipedia article on 'RAF Machrihanish': If this is correct, at the relevant time (i.e. around 1990) Machrihanish was in practice a US Navy facility, and might be seen as a suitable place for doing odd bits of research and testing. I leave it to American readers to consider...

Or a balloon at equilibrium altitude. I know, I know, it's supposed to be a super-hi-tech stealth aircraft, and a balloon isn't any of that. But suppose the aim was to test the radar profile of the aircraft against the UK's radar systems, without actually sending the aircraft itself. Would it...

I agree that with 3-d objects we wouldn't usually see an exact mirror image, for the reasons you explain. But in the examples I gave - like a bird or an airplane - we would expect to see some kind of direct image, as well as a reflected image, if the object is within the direct field of view...

This is probably now overtaken by events, but in case anyone is still interested in my post #354 above, I made a diagram to help explain my point about the angle of reflection. The line CD represents a plane surface of reflection, viewed from the side. A is the observer's or camera's...

From your account, Stu Little seems plausible, but that would apply to every conman from the serpent in Eden onwards. Not saying he is a conman, just that plausibility is no guarantee of truth. Independent confirmation required. Edit: incidentally, do we know if Stu Little is his real name...

It even has the odd little bobble at the end, which is otherwise so out-of-scale with the rest of the Calvine object!

If I understand it correctly, the photo now being hyped as the 'original' photo is just the one print (out of six) which Craig Lindsay happened to keep, maybe because he thought it was the 'best'. If so, there is no particular reason to suppose that the copy pinned up on the wall in the MoD was...

I assume there is a narrow angle between the line of sight and the reflective surface. Suppose the viewpoint is A, the object on the surface (e.g. a rock) is B, and the point on the surface immediately below A is C, then the angle of interest is angle ABC. My point is that nothing in the sky...

You are right. I already made a correction on this point. The top half of the frame would be filled with sky, but it would be sky within a narrow angular 'band' above the horizon (which raises a separate difficulty about what kind of horizon would be visible, as the reflecting surface probably...

Maybe I need a 4th thought about this! But I think there was something valid in what I said, even if I didn't put it very clearly. Since angle of reflection = angle of incidence, if the viewpoint is close (in angular terms) to the plane of reflection, then anything in the sky beyond the...

I notice that I've been promoted to 'senior member'. I don't think I've done anything to deserve that other than hanging around here for several years! Just in case it leads anyone to take my casual opinions too seriously, I should say that I've had 'third thoughts' about the reflection...

Well, they could, but these were internal records that they probably never expected to be made public. So who would they be lying to?