question about google earth sky

a reply to: intrptr

Look, exploring "secrets of the deep state" is fine......but like I said, if you stop and think about it, there is no need for the "deep state" to add secret equipment to Hubble to spy on things....none at all, when they can simply put up their own satellites and do whatever they want, in secret, with no interference from anyone, or astronomers.

It's just common sense is all. I have NO doubt at all about certain satellites up there that can look down and see things. No doubt at all.

Hubble ain't it though. Too obvious, and the wrong tool for the job. They've had decades to put up the right things for that job.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: wmd_2008

You're stuck in the official stats about Hubbles primary mission. How stupid is that?

You think the Hubble can be used to photograph the Earth and I am the stupid one, as the Hubble and Spy satellites are reflecting telescopes with cameras of course mirrors are important. You made claims about Hubble with nothing to support your claims, now you just tuck your tail and run away so you don't need to back your claims.

a reply to: eriktheawful

All that other spy tech is secret too. Deep State Secret, so your argument against hiding it is moot.

a reply to: intrptr
Fact is, the Hubble's schedule for astronomical observations is full for months to come. It doesn't really get any chance to look at the Earth even if it could. It's too busy observing the sky.

a reply to: wmd_2008

I already stated earlier that it was only conjecture on my part. If you read the thread instead of just scolding, you would also know I keep asking how could it be done and brought examples to counter arguments all thru the thread, which have been met mostly with arrogance and ridicule like yours just also did, which is why I am bowing out.

I know when I am treading on hallowed ground.

a reply to: wildespace

Apparently the Deep State has a special Alternate Reality device too, so that they can some how use Hubble to spy on the Earth while it spends hours and days imaging deep space objects, with the astronomers none the wiser about it.

Because as we all know, none of the alphabet agencies, military or the "deep state" would ever put their own devices up in orbit.

i came back to this thread to laugh, but i'm really enjoying all these very thorough, (mostly) patient, fact-based posts about astronomy, photography, satellites and telescopes. very educational stuff, guys!

The military and NASA have a long history simultaneously of competition, cooperation and conflict in the field of Earth observation, and by coincidence I have been adding to and updating sections of my own website that deal with the role of the DMSP weather satellites during the Apollo era. That history is one where the military developed their own kit in frustration at the slowness of NASA development, but at the same time time used the key civilian personnel and technologies to push those developments. Civilian and military branches pushed and pulled each other along in a kind of antagonistic symbiosis.

This document

www.lander.odessa.ua...

goes into a lot of detail about satellite development in general and also discusses Hubble. The main military involvement with Hubble seems to revolve around the use of classified camera and lens technology and manufacture when it was first being designed and built (just as many classified technologies were de-classified for use in Apollo).

There is no evidence that anything secret was installed to spy on Earth in Hubble and as many have pointed out it just isn't the right tool for the job. Military surveillance satellites have been launched and operated outside the public domain since people first figured out how to fire a rocket, but sticking things on a major and very public and high profile science project is counter-productive as well as being a waste of money.

a reply to: OneBigMonkeyToo

check out the 2nd video from this link, looks almost whole to me www.rt.com...

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: SpaceXIsReal

You have not shown that any of the upgrades made to Hubble would enable it to take unblurred high speed photography of the earth.

You have not shown me it isn't possible.

It's not up to me to prove a negative. I'm not the one making the incredible claim. It's up to you to prove that Hubble has had dramatic changes to its pointing and shutter mechanisms that have turned it into a spy satellite rather than the precision, slow pointing, long exposure astronomical observatory that all evidence points to it actually being. There's not even a plausible motive for doing this equally implausible task. Other satellites with the same aperture optics actually do exist for the express purpose of spying on earth, without needing to try to slip in "super secret spy activities" for a very poorly suited and very booked-up Hubble space telescope.

a reply to: dan121212

Except it isn't. You can clearly see the fish-eye lens distorting both the horizon and the ISS structure. What you are seeing is the horizon a thousand km or so in any one direction. It's curved, but it isn't the whole Earth.

If it's an entire hemisphere you should have no trouble working out which continent you're looking at, right?

e2a: My guess is all you can see there is central America - you get a brief glimpse of what looks like the southern tip of Baja California at one point.

Here's a fish-eye lens photograph that 360° of the horizon, but is only taken a few thousand feet in the air:



There's a company in Europe that specializes in these: Link

Didn't the government donate one of their large spy telescope to the astronomers? www.space.com...

It seems like the government has enough spy telescopes as it is, and the astronomers could definitely do with more space-observing ones. So making a spy telescope out of the Hubble is a big no-no.

a reply to: intrptr

Yet when people provide the answers why your assumption is wrong you contine to repeat.