VSS-3 at 1.75 miles

Hi Everybody,
I realize it has been over 2 years since I actually started a thread.
Life has been challenging, but I will not bore you with that.

On halloween I pulled out the VSS-3 and used it like a search light.
This year I decided to document its illumination capability.
You will quickly see it is great for lighting up targets a long ways away while keeping everything around it relatively dark.
Something else very interesting is how photos at night just cannot give perspective in terms of distance of objects being illuminated.
These shots are rather extreme for demonstrating this dynamic.

First the day shots.

The VSS-3 will be focused on the mountain behind my home.


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The The target for the light will be the bush in the red circle.
According to google maps it is about 1.75 miles away from my house.
The towers on the mountain top behind the ridge that has the target bush are 2 miles away. I could actually dimly light them but this last halloween was just too hazy to see them being lit.


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Now for the night shots.

First the wider angle shot.
It is really hard to see the end of the beam in this shot.
The slight haze did wonders for giving the beam and even more solid blue color, but as I mentioned before it hampered visibility.


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Here in the close up shot you can more clearly see the bush 1.75 miles away.
Once again if the night was clearer the bush would have been more visible.
The haze caused the beam to obstruct the very object it was trying to illuminate so I actually had to adjust the camera, I dropped from 6' to 5' so the beam would not look nearly completely solid, so the bush would show up and not just a blue line and spot.



This was a fun shoot and the VSS-3 is always a blast to operate.

Take Care and a Late Happy New Year to Everybody,
mtbkndad :wave:

Wow!

I looked up what a VSS-3 was hoping its something I could buy and carry around.

Wrong...that thing looks like it belongs on a side of a tank!

Amazing! 1.75 miles...

I see you also managed to blind that insect and put it into a terminal tailspin, lol.

SH*T!!!

Good to see you posting again, Daniel. There's nothing like the VSS's in operation to raise the excitement level!

Haha! I'm laughing at DM's comment about shooting down that insect..

Daniel, those are really neat shots and I always appreciated it when people take the time to post the range to objects in their beamshots. It quite amazing to see how much light is actually hitting the target up there despite the thick atmosphere it that it had to bore through. Thanks for posting these. I'd love to see these again in ideal conditions sometime.

holy crap!!! 2 miles!!!
thats insane. I don't even think my eyes can see that far.

thanks for posting this:twothumbs

That thing is a BEAST!!!! Me likey :bow:

Good Old AN/VSS 3. Great light...great shots :twothumbs

mtbkndad, great thread and photos! You and your shootouts have always been a source of inspiration, and it's great to see you posting!

Happy New Year!

Just awesome, how is that looking if you stay there and look down or try to read a newspaper?

Extrem lights need extrem beamshoots.

thanx

daniel

It is truly amazing how tightly focused the VSS-1 and VSS-3 are. There is very, very little light scatter, corona visible from these gems. You need to look closely to be able to see anything let alone read in the immediate area.

Thanks very much to everybody for the kind words.
I have some other ideas for cool shots with this and other lights.

danjoo,

BVH speaks the truth and I will try to take a photos to demonstrate it in the near future. It is amazing just how tight the beam shoots and how little light gets anywhere but the beam. It is not that no light gets elsewhere in terms of spill but the beam is so bright that it really makes the what little spill there is useless in comparison.

Take Care,
mtbkndad :wave:

Thanks for the pics! It's a white laser, isn't it? If only there would have been another VSS on the mountain you could have had a light saber fight for people to see for miles.

Good to see another of our 'elite' group of AN/VSS-3 owner/operators. :thumbsup:



I wonder how many Tank Light's have actually made it into civvy hands and are up and running. This CPF-HID forum is the only place I see us congregating.

mtbkndad what are you using for a power supply? I just added a NATO military plug to mine so I can just plug it in to my HMMWV(400Amp accessory outlet)

Phased_Array said:

Good to see another of our 'elite' group of AN/VSS-3 owner/operators. :thumbsup:

I wonder how many Tank Light's have actually made it into civvy hands and are up and running. This CPF-HID forum is the only place I see us congregating.

mtbkndad what are you using for a power supply? I just added a NATO military plug to mine so I can just plug it in to my HMMWV(400Amp accessory outlet)

Click to expand...

Two 12 volt deep cycle batteries power the tank light.
Actually the lights are not too hard to come by, it is the control boxes that are rarer then chicken lips.
Do you have a source for extra control boxes?

Take Care,
mtbkndad :wave:

mtbkndad,
PM sent.

Now all you need to do is have someone else turn on the light from 2 miles away and take beamshots in the target area. I would be interested to see how brightly an area that far away is lit up.