Can a Alt/Az goto track aircraft?

What with all the controversy of pilots reporting being painted by green
lasers, for far longer than a split second.
I am wondering if this is within the capabilities of amateur astronomer
equipment? e.g.
could a LX-90 with a green laser mounted on it, be capable of doing such a
feat?
I've never owned a alt/az goto, and I don't know if such hardware could be
fast and smooth and accurate enough to pull this off, i.e. track the cockpit
say for 5 or 10 seconds?
It seems unlikely to me..If I had to bet, I'd point my finger at some
black-ops BS, after all, it's common practice for military pilots to
practice EW and target civilian"bogies", and maybe they are yet again
crossing the line?
Thoughts?
Orion.

On Sat, 01 Jan 2005 01:55:08 GMT, "Orion"
wrote:

What with all the controversy of pilots reporting being painted by green
lasers, for far longer than a split second.
I am wondering if this is within the capabilities of amateur astronomer
equipment? e.g.
could a LX-90 with a green laser mounted on it, be capable of doing such a
feat?
I've never owned a alt/az goto, and I don't know if such hardware could be
fast and smooth and accurate enough to pull this off, i.e. track the cockpit
say for 5 or 10 seconds?

The LX-90 could do it, but the laser can't. Too much beam divergence
to make it a "pinpoint" in the cabin.
-Rich

Orion wrote:
What with all the controversy of pilots reporting being painted by
green
lasers, for far longer than a split second.
I am wondering if this is within the capabilities of amateur
astronomer
equipment? e.g.
could a LX-90 with a green laser mounted on it, be capable of doing
such a
feat?
I've never owned a alt/az goto, and I don't know if such hardware
could be
fast and smooth and accurate enough to pull this off, i.e. track the
cockpit
say for 5 or 10 seconds?
It seems unlikely to me..If I had to bet, I'd point my finger at some
black-ops BS, after all, it's common practice for military pilots to
practice EW and target civilian"bogies", and maybe they are yet again
crossing the line?
Thoughts?
Orion.

yes it is within reason if the plane is traveling less than 1 degree
per second (in a comercial airliner, not likely). it is considerably
easier to target spy satelites. an lx200 can easly target just about
any satelite beyond the orbit of the ISS. A laser pointer and a SBIG AO
system can be used to blind it temporairily. the problem is the
satelite can register is your position to within 10 meters, well within
the targeting capability of a JDAM. in fact, this would be the only
thing it would register. it would be nearly imposible to blind a pilot
or a satelite without a much more powerfull lazer (100Watt'ish).the
problem at this wattage is the mirror absorbs 10% of he energy and will
be quickly destroyed. if you did manage to target a cockpit you could
only blind one pilot before the other noticed. in other words, yes it
is possible but you will be found and prosecuted (read: executed) if
you ever try it.
you should not worry about terrorists using astronomical equipment to
blind pilots/satelites. it is simply impractical. it is nearly
impossible to find (let alone aquire) the equipment to do so.

You should be as worried about this as you are of a comet landing on
your head.

mike

The bad part of this Saga is the News Media will keep the Hype going,
and not publish the facts as Mike quoted. The facts would kill the
story.
DL Smallen

In point of fact, my concerns, or fears, if you like, are not about
terrorists from foreign countries, but rather the home grown varity that
work for the feds (e.g.black-ops) , and since they are fed connected, they
are untouchable, above the law.I really wondering how long I have to buy a
green laser before they are outlawed, or worse, designated for "official"
use only...
Orion

wrote in message
ups.com...

Orion wrote:
What with all the controversy of pilots reporting being painted by
green
lasers, for far longer than a split second.
I am wondering if this is within the capabilities of amateur
astronomer
equipment? e.g.
could a LX-90 with a green laser mounted on it, be capable of doing
such a
feat?
I've never owned a alt/az goto, and I don't know if such hardware
could be
fast and smooth and accurate enough to pull this off, i.e. track the
cockpit
say for 5 or 10 seconds?
It seems unlikely to me..If I had to bet, I'd point my finger at some
black-ops BS, after all, it's common practice for military pilots to
practice EW and target civilian"bogies", and maybe they are yet again
crossing the line?
Thoughts?
Orion.

yes it is within reason if the plane is traveling less than 1 degree
per second (in a comercial airliner, not likely). it is considerably
easier to target spy satelites. an lx200 can easly target just about
any satelite beyond the orbit of the ISS. A laser pointer and a SBIG AO
system can be used to blind it temporairily. the problem is the
satelite can register is your position to within 10 meters, well within
the targeting capability of a JDAM. in fact, this would be the only
thing it would register. it would be nearly imposible to blind a pilot
or a satelite without a much more powerfull lazer (100Watt'ish).the
problem at this wattage is the mirror absorbs 10% of he energy and will
be quickly destroyed. if you did manage to target a cockpit you could
only blind one pilot before the other noticed. in other words, yes it
is possible but you will be found and prosecuted (read: executed) if
you ever try it.
you should not worry about terrorists using astronomical equipment to
blind pilots/satelites. it is simply impractical. it is nearly
impossible to find (let alone aquire) the equipment to do so.

You should be as worried about this as you are of a comet landing on
your head.

mike

you should not worry about terrorists using astronomical
equipment to blind pilots/satelites. it is simply impractical.

That's correct, but what we should worry about is a government
knee-jerk reaction that would make such equipement illegal. Look what
happened to the model rocketers.

The LX-90 could do it, but the laser can't. Too much beam divergence
to make it a "pinpoint" in the cabin.
-Rich

Seems to me the problem with tracking an aircraft is one has to know where it
is going. Pretty hard to know that before hand...

Kind of like tracking a bird but a whole lot easier because airplanes are not
that manuveurable.

jon

I tracked and photographed aircraft with my TV Pronto many times, day time
on the up-swing Alt/Az mount manually. Question is what power you trying to
track! Also, had my Sony camcorder on my tri-pod, tracking aircraft and
videotaping it. Even birds in flight, pretty hard though.
Track with power or goto, you would need to know the coordinates of the
objects path before hand or own a fancy electronic guider that can lock on
to the visual image of the objects and translat it into XYZ numbers for the
computer. Military has that kind of device, some missiles would be useless
without it.
Julius


"Jon Isaacs" wrote in message
...

The LX-90 could do it, but the laser can't. Too much beam divergence
to make it a "pinpoint" in the cabin.
-Rich

Seems to me the problem with tracking an aircraft is one has to know where
it
is going. Pretty hard to know that before hand...

Kind of like tracking a bird but a whole lot easier because airplanes are
not
that manuveurable.

jon

I tracked and photographed aircraft with my TV Pronto many times, day time
on the up-swing Alt/Az mount manually.

No trouble tracking airplanes manually, but the subject here is whether an
alt-az GOTO mount can track aircraft...

jon isaacs

How can you track an airplane GOTO, if you don't know the exact coordinats
of the flying objects? Even for comets or for the ISS has to have the latest
coordinets, they move fast.
Julius

"Jon Isaacs" wrote in message
...
I tracked and photographed aircraft with my TV Pronto many times, day
time
on the up-swing Alt/Az mount manually.

No trouble tracking airplanes manually, but the subject here is whether an
alt-az GOTO mount can track aircraft...

jon isaacs