Originally posted by HOWARDSTERN
If you are willing to go the extra mile(so-to-speak), then why not try triangulation?
It's been quite a few years since I have thought about attempting to triangulate great distances with crude equipment, so bear with me, and of course feel free to improve upon my ideas.
Basically, if you are unfamiliar with the idea of triangulation, thus:
okokokokk????....Ok, say if an object at night is out there!!!!!!!!!!!!, at an unknown distance from you.....
- You might be able to take two high powered spotlights, to triangulate the postion, speed, and distance of the UFO.
- What would best best, is to have two people, each with a spotlight, separated by say at least......O' ...500 to 1000 ft. Bear in mind though, that the greater distance between the two spotlights, the better!
- In fact, the spotlights could be separated say up to a quarter of a mile apart! It would be best also, if you had a third(or even 4th) person to coordinate and record the positions of the spotlights being aimed.
Using good, precise compasses would be invaluable!
Basically, when the UFO appears in the night sky, spotlight #1 & spotlight #2 would be aimed from their respective positions and held on the UFO. You should want to know the precise distance between your spotlight positions.
By figuring the angle at which the two spotlights converge (using compasses), you might get a reasonable estimate of the distance at which the UFO is from you. Perhaps the use of GPS might work even better.
Roughly though, a couple of people with a spotlight apiece, and a couple of walkie talkies (radio's), could get an idea of about how far away the UFO might be. Of course if it is in Earth orbit or beyond, the spotlights won't appear to converge (overlap) much at all. If however, the UFO is pretty damn close, you should be seeing the two spotlights overlapping (crossing) each others paths at greater and greater angles.
Try this, if you can before the UFO appears, or on nights when the UFO doesn't make a show. You & your friend could probably get some pretty good ideas of the spotlight overlap based of trees, terrain, mtns, buildings, ect.........
If spotlights don't do it for you, then howabout using laser pointing devices. Lasers which would be visible to 1/2 mile away or so (((O'yeah, each spotlighter should also have a good pair of binoculars or spotting scope/even field glasses would be good)))).
If I were going to set the experiment up, I'd replace the spotlights with lasers. I would build a couple of tripods out of scrap lumber , or whatever. On top of each tripod, I would like to mount the laser pointers on a length of say 2x4 lumber, which would also have a fixed compass. The idea is to make something similiar to what the surveyors use.. By communicating with your buddy via radio, you could write down the precise time, the precise direction (N?S?E?W in degrees) at which each of you are pointing your lasers............
Make sure that the location of the laser pointers(spotlights) are always the same, day after day(every night). To do this, I would simply drive a piece of metal deep into the ground directly under the tripod of each pointer/spotlight. This will assure your position records don't get thrown off, thus resulting in bad data.
This is all pretty offhand, and I haven't put much thought into it. I'm sure that you could refine the ideas and equipment to help you in gathering data about the UFO.
Expenditures in equipment? NOT MUCH AT ALL! Really I am curious as to why more UFO people haven't gotten the word out more to amateur investigators so that invaluable data could be collected in the light that there is so damn little data to support the many claims!
HELL! MAYBE I'LL DO JUST THAT!
Not only can one get an estimate of distance, but if the object is moving, it would also be possible to get a pretty good idea of the speed at which the object is moving.
Another thing that would be good to have is a very sensitive audio pickup device. Something like this is off the shelf tech & could be pointed into the direction of the UFO (IF YOU ARE IN A QUITE AREA). The reason I say this is that there is almost always the report of witnesses saying that the UFO made no sound(noise). If one had a pretty sensitive mic. pointed at the object, then even more data could be gathered. If however, you were to get an audio recording of a real, honest to god UFO, then you would have something to add that no other person has ever managed to show as evidence.
Of course, one of the best things to have would be an infared viwer or a starlight telescope (expensive). With the ability to zoom in, one might be able to pick out an incredible amount of detail of the UFO.
LUCK IN YOUR SCIENCE EXPERIMENT AND DATA GATHERING.
PS.. Whatever it turns out to be, don't be disappointed. You can continue to make observations and teach others of you data gathering abilities. Chances are, sooner or later, that someone will get the inside scoop and have the irrefutable evidence which virtually all sightings are devoid of today!
HS/GD