That's Not a Drone!

[jtbell]

If I were a bad guy flying a drone at night for some nefarious purpose, would I turn its lights on?

 

[Bandersnatch]

If I were a bad guy flying a drone at night for some nefarious purpose, would I turn its lights on?

Yes. To camouflage it as Venus. :p

 

[Baluncore]

"This is not an exercise".
That might be a drone.

 

[BillTre]

It's a news crew with a professional TV camera on a tripod, likely looking at Venus. They admit they have no idea what they are looking at, but worse, they also have no idea how to get a quality picture/video of the night sky with a $10,000 (guess) camera that is certainly capable of resolving Venus.

I'm going to need to take a video to demonstrate this, but I'll have to wait a few days for clearer skies.

Please send ABC a link to your video when done.
They really need to now when they are being stupid, on national TV, to millions of people.

 

[jtbell]

Yes. To camouflage it as Venus. :p

Hmmm... I took this picture earlier this month, a few miles from the Kings Bay submarine base in Georgia.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I think the drones of interest are the ones that hover over critical infrastructure and military bases, and act evasively.

Ghassali, the Montvale mayor, said law enforcement said in the briefing the drones sometimes appear to fly in a coordinated pattern and can sometimes be in flight for up to six hours.

The drones primarily operate at night, often displaying flashing lights, but they turn off the lights and evade police helicopters when approached, Mayor Michael Melham of Belleville Township said in a Facebook video update on Wednesday.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/12/us/new-jersey-drone-sightings/index.html#:~:text=The drones primarily operate at,Facebook video update on Wednesday.

The red and green aviation lights on regular aircraft are easy to recognize.

The Pentagon spokesman only waved his hand and said, "These are not the drones you are looking for".

 

[BillTre]

Pretty soon (I predict) the military will have effective anti-drone weapons of various kinds. Ukraine has been developing and receiving them for several months now.
After the military gets these anti-drone weapons, they won't be flying around those bases very long.

 

[jtbell]

Drones run amok during a synchronized-drone show in Orlando, Florida:



A kid was hit in the chest by a drone and needed heart surgery as a result.

This involved just a few of the drones in the show, and presumably happened because of a programming error or some kind of random interference. But suppose someone figures out how to "hijack" a whole fleet of these drones. Updated version of Hitchcock's film The Birds, anyone?

 

[russ_watters]

Turns out resolving Venus with a normal camera is much more difficult than I expected. Right now, Venus is only 20 arcsec across; a little more than 1% the diameter of the moon. In March it will be 50 arcsec across. By comparison, Jupiter is about 40 arcsec across.

The main problem I'm having is with focusing. Both my Panasonic Lumix point-and-shoot and my Canon EOS R10 SLR boost the screen brightness when manually focusing, blowing-out Venus and making it impossible to focus. I eventually figured out that there was a much dimmer star nearby that was not blown-out, which I could focus on before moving back to Venus. I haven't tried that yet with my Lumix, but here it is with the Canon: 300mm, f/5.6, 1/4000th sec (not a typo; really 1/4000th sec), unedited except for cropping.

This first one is a screen-grab from Photoshop at 400x zoom. You apparently can't resize without Photoshop applying a smoothing filter, and I didn't want to over-represent the image quality.

The next one is with the Photoshop 400% resize and smoothing:

Compared with Starry Night:

I'll try again another night and will still try to take an instructional video if I can get it working on the Lumix.

 

[Swamp Thing]

https://www.indy100.com/news/us-navy-venus-spy-balloon-2659371853

The more things change...

 

[berkeman]

https://www.indy100.com/news/us-navy-venus-spy-balloon-2659371853

The more things change...

Pilot: "I can't get a radar lock, switching to guns!"

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The UK has had troubling activity as well, so they are bumping up the restrictions around military bases.

Government places drone restrictions over 11 military sites​

These sites are all key Ministry of Defence locations, with some linked to nuclear operations or sensitive military activities. The restrictions apply to unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) flying within specific altitudes and distances around these sites.

This move comes after a series of unexplained drone sightings at US airfields across the UK, including two sites associated with nuclear weapons. While no arrests have been made, the incidents have sparked concerns that the activities may be linked to Russia. The authorities are continuing their investigations, although sightings have decreased significantly since late November.

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/government-places-drone-restrictions-over-11-military-sites/

 

[Swamp Thing]

https://www.thehindu.com/news/natio...rones-give-precision-demo/article67938683.ece

 

[Redbelly98]

How far are these sightings from Grovers Mill?

Well, since it got brought up, here's an anecdote my Dad told me about that. He was 20 years old in 1938, and at a friend's house listening to the War of the Worlds broadcast. He said that, at some point, he said to his friend "I wonder if anyone believes this is really happening."

 

[Ivan Seeking]

It started with military bases. You have to learn to filter the noise from the signal. Why just amplify the noise?

 

[Doc Al]

 

[Ivan Seeking]

 

[Ivan Seeking]

One news source is reporting that, according to NJ police, drone activity is continuing, but I haven't see a confirmation from the police on that. However, the same source reported this story which seems to be confirmed.

The FAA confirmed to AIN that a Gulfstream G550 experienced a midair collision with a mysterious object at FL270 in Miami airspace on December 11 during a flight from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (KFXE) to New York’s Westchester County Airport (KHPN). According to the FAA statement, the twinjet diverted to, and landed safely at, Palm Beach International Airport (KPBI) “after the pilot reported striking an object in Miami airspace.”

https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-...al&utm_source=linkedin&hss_channel=lcp-389487

Note that FL270 is 27,000 feet.

 

[berkeman]

Note that FL270 is 27,000 feet.

Holy crap. Drones can get that high?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Holy crap. Drones can get that high?

The legal limit is 400 feet for recreational drones. But military drones and others?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Whatever they hit must have come down. If they were over land, maybe it will be found.

 

[berkeman]

I skimmed the article, but could not tell where the impact was on the plane. Was it on an engine or a control surface?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I skimmed the article, but could not tell where the impact was on the plane. Was it on an engine or a control surface?

Allegedly it destroyed one of the engines. But that is not yet confirmed by official sources.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Multiple reputable sources are reporting that the engine was damaged. And the original claim was that it hit a metallic object. I don't know how they made that determination originally.

The possibility of a bird strike was mentioned. And while apparently ruled out by the nature of the damage, I was surprised to learn that some birds can fly that high.

 

[berkeman]

Yeah, the reports I read said that there was no evidence of biological remains in the engine, but there was metallic damage (whatever that means).

 

[Flyboy]

Yeah, the reports I read said that there was no evidence of biological remains in the engine, but there was metallic damage (whatever that means).

Something like this, most likely.

That’s from a screw coming out and pinballing around the intake for a second or two. A drone would trash much more than that if it hit the fan, and would totally shell the engine if a motor went through the gas generator core.

Commercial off-the-shelf drones can, and have, reach(ed) altitudes of 30,000 feet. DJI in particular demonstrated flying one of their higher-end hobby drones over the summit of Mount Everest recently. I don’t recall if it made the ascent from Base Camp all the way to the summit in a single sortie, or stopped along the way for a battery swap.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

 

[jtbell]

A private drone took out one of the Super Scooper planes fighting the Palisades fire in California.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Here is more from the Governors regarding drone activity.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

60 Minutes did a segment about the incursions over military bases, including Langley. They don't know who it is or how to bring them down.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/drone-swarms-national-security-60-minutes-transcript/