eburacum
Papo-furado
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2005
- Messages
- 5,803
Let's take a look at the Starscope, to see if that gives any clues. The instrument was actually an AN/PVS2 Starlight scope, and Halt didn't know what it was when he first picked it up (this is on the tape). Despite this, he seems to have used it more often than anyone else that night; rank hath its privileges.
The AN/PVS2 scope is a large object, designed for night combat; despite its name, it's not that good at looking at stars, although it gives an advantage to snipers in the dark. Here's one, attached to a rifle
it is quite a large thing, and would have been tricky to hold steady, even when not attached to a rifle.
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These starlight scopes detect infra-red light and project it onto a cathode ray screen inside the scope, so the image you see is completely false. There are strange effects as well, due to the optics and internal reflections; here's a screenshot showing a long, thin, pencil-like lens flare that seems to come directly towards the observer.
I suspect that a similar effect is responsible for Halt's pencil-thin rays coming down from the object (s) he observed. Remember he had limited experience with this technology, and either didn't know or forgotten its name. The fact that the Starlight scope also magnifies would have exaggerated the movements of the stars, which movements were almost certainly caused by the hand-held nature of the scope.
The AN/PVS2 scope is a large object, designed for night combat; despite its name, it's not that good at looking at stars, although it gives an advantage to snipers in the dark. Here's one, attached to a rifle
it is quite a large thing, and would have been tricky to hold steady, even when not attached to a rifle.
-----
These starlight scopes detect infra-red light and project it onto a cathode ray screen inside the scope, so the image you see is completely false. There are strange effects as well, due to the optics and internal reflections; here's a screenshot showing a long, thin, pencil-like lens flare that seems to come directly towards the observer.
I suspect that a similar effect is responsible for Halt's pencil-thin rays coming down from the object (s) he observed. Remember he had limited experience with this technology, and either didn't know or forgotten its name. The fact that the Starlight scope also magnifies would have exaggerated the movements of the stars, which movements were almost certainly caused by the hand-held nature of the scope.
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