textfiles/ufo/UFOBBS/0000/044.ufo

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SUBJECT: UFO's and the SHUTTLE FILE: UFO43
PART 2
Note that the bright light in upper left is some sort of camera
anomaly and is not an electronic horizon marker as alleged by
Hoagland. There is no such thing as an electronic horizon marker.
Is the object behind the atmosphere? Hoagland argues that
analysis of the imagery shows the object is physically behind the
atmosphere. But I disagree. It is NOT seen through the
atmosphere:
First, consider the brightening effect. Computer analysis is
shown which alleges that the brightening of the object while
below the airglow layer is analogous to the brightening of stars
setting behind the airglow layer. This allegedly implies that the
object, like the stars, is behind the airglow layer.
This argumentation is false because it posits the wrong causation
mechanism for brightening ("passage of the light through
atmosphere"). This should be obvious since at the airglow
altitude (40-60 miles) the atmosphere is already extremely thin
and the lapse rate (the drop in pressure per rise in altitude) is
already much reduced over the value at lower altitudes (that is,
crossing the "airglow boundary" does NOT significantly change the
atmospheric density the light ray is passing through). If density
WERE the true cause of brightening, the effect would markedly
peak at a lower altitude (as soon as the beam rose above total
obscuration), then drop rapidly as atmospheric density dropped,
and show NO NOTICEABLE CHANGE in dimunition rate as it crossed
the airglow layer because the density of traversed air wouldn't
change much either at that region.
The actual connection for the object's brightening is the
absolute brightness of the airglow layer in the background. The
object is brighter when it is against a bright background, just
as stars are brighter. This is not an effect of a light ray
transiting the airglow region and somehow being strengthened.
Instead, I believe it is an effect on the camera optics of the
summing, pixel by pixel, of all brightness within the field of
view. A bright object with a dark background will not throw as
many photons on the individual pixels of the camera as would a
bright object with a half-bright background. The camera's vidicon
system will respond to light in the background by brightening the
small point-source objects observed in that region, either lying
behind or crossing in front of that background. Repeat: crossing
in front of that airglow.
This is confirmed by other checks. Observers can note that other
drifting point-source objects, clearly starting well below the
horizon line, also brighten as they traverse the airglow region.
NOTE: Hoagland's argument that the dimming beyond the airglow
disproves NASA's contention that the object is nearby and sunlit,
since as it gradually rose "higher into the sunlight" it should
brighten, not dim, is false. Once in full sunlight, no further
brightening occurs. Sunrise only lasts as long as it takes for
the sun (0.5 degrees wide) to rise above the horizon, at the
orbital angular rate of 4 degrees per minute (that is, 360
degrees in a 90-minute orbit), which comes to just 7-8 seconds,
which anybody should have been able to figure out. Of course this
is different from ground rates, which depends for the sun's
angular motion on earth's rotation rate (4 minutes per degree, 16
times slower than spaceship orbital rate). This argument reveals
Hoagland's unfamiliarity with basic orbital flight conditions and
implications.
Notice that no mention is made by Hoagland of the clear absence
of expected refractive effects of being behind the atmosphere. As
is known by anybody who's watched sunset/moonset at a flat
horizon, the atmosphere creates significant distortion in the
bottom .2-.4 degrees of the image. The lowest layers demonstrate
a vertical compression of 2:1 or greater. This is also shown on
pictures of "moonset" from orbit. If the STS-48 object were
really travelling nearly parallel to the horizon but somewhere
behind the atmosphere, this would be visible by analyzing its
flight path. As it rose its line of travel would markedly change
as atmospheric refractive effects disappeared. This does not
happen, which strongly suggests that the object is NOT behind the
atmosphere.
continued in part (3)
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