Hi Bunch,
>The avgerage eyeball that does not require corrective lenses has a resolution limit of about 180 arcseconds (although the lens is about 7mm, so the theoretical limit is 14 arc seconds at visual wavelengths) - read this in astronomy journals & tested it in R/L situation, very accurate.
Hm, I'm familiar with the figure of 60 arcseconds resolution, but that's for "optimum conditions". Maybe it's the low-light, low-constrast situation typical for astromical observations that accounts for the difference to your figure?
Other figures I just looked up:
- Angle difference required to see two dots as distinct: 120 arcseconds
- Optimum resolution when discerning parallel lines: 10 - 20 arcseconds
It appears that the eye does some really advanced image processing, which accounts for the spread in these figures :-)
I guess due to the different properties and distribution of rods and cones, imaging resolution is a rather complex topic with the human eye anyway :-)
>Ever read of binoculars being used in the cockpit of a fighter in combat (other than P-61, which had built in ones to aid nightvision)? It could have proved very valuable for long range A/C identification of what was just a spec to the naked eye, if it was possible to use them effectively.
I think the use of (hand-held) night glasses was pretty common on Luftwaffe night fighters at least. If they were incorporated into the P-61, I'd assume hand-held glasses probably had been in use with Allied night fighters, too. (Do you have details on the P-61 system? For example, could it be used to sight the guns?)
With day fighters, the only one I'm aware of is (again :-) Galland, who had a monocular telescope mounted through the windscreen of his Emil. It was placed in the lower right-hand corner of the windscreen, so I think he used it only for idendification (as you pointed out) and not as a sighting device. (I believe this must have been an early Emil without an armour glass windscreen.)
As Galland's left eye was particularly bad due injuries suffered in a flying accident, maybe he was looking for a means to improve his eye sight. On the other hand, he could simply have been trying to "secure all available advantages" in classic Boelcke fashion :-)
The Luftwaffe experimented with magnifying telescopic sights that combined their image with that of a regular reflector sight in one neat installation, but though they seem to have developed it into a production-ready unit, it was never introduced into service.
With regard to modern fighters, I've been told that F-15 pilots often carry "hunting scopes" for identification. I thought this referred to monocular telescopic sights as used with hunting rifles, but now I realize they might actually have referred to binoculars.
Perhaps an English speaker with hunting experience can decode this term for us? :-)
Regards,
Henning (HoHun)
