OT: Thing in field

Cant easily get down the embankment from canal towpath to investigate the thing. Triangular base and sides about 1 metre (guessed), open front - maybe a few pebbles chucked in it.

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Any ideas?

Reply to
Geo
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Hmm, looks some sort of "retro reflector".

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

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Reply to
Tim+

What's in the direction of the open front?

Reply to
Andy Burns

Approximately West - more field then some houses and a bonded warehouse. Dunno how to share the location easily but putting this in to google earth should locate you on the north side of the Union Canal.

N55 58.633 W3 34.705

Reply to
Geo

To facilitate aerial tagging (helicopter) of a pipeline quite often little orange squares are used . Could it be some sort of marker for a pipeline that is tagged by RADAR.

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Could it be so some sort of plough/harvester can be RADAR steered to an exact straight line

Reply to
soup

If its very lightweight and or had a small parachute attached it is the radar corner reflector from a meteorology balloon.

Reply to
Peter Parry

It looks as if it's pretty thoroughly tied down. Also IIRC those have 8 corners. (inside out cube)

What does the label on the LHS say? What's the box on the ground underneath?

Andy

Reply to
Vir Campestris

It is - guyed at 3 points and the 3 metal legs terminate on what looks to be wooden blocks on the ground.

Did not have binoculars and camera zoom not sufficient. Lots of sting nettles on the bank.

Reply to
Geo

It looks like it's collecting airborne seeds. Any GM crop trials in the area?

Reply to
The Other John

Flying insect trap?

Reply to
harry

A friend reckons it's a collimator or reflector for radio surveying.

Reply to
Chris Bartram

Bothy for an alien? Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

..and further suggests as it's a canal bank it could be TiNSAR.

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Reply to
Chris Bartram

Well it's a radio frequency retro reflector, ie it bounces back to the source anything that enters. Can't make out the words on the little yellow warning label but they are something like in length:

xxxx xx

xxxxx xxxxx

The box I think is just a foot and maybe anchor point. Each corner of the base looks to have one.

What or who it's for havent a clue any airports near by, as it's slightly angled up.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Through binoculars today made out "Danger of Electric Shock"

Further along the field the embankment has been reinforced with a layer of largish rocks so maybe they are checking for movement somehow.

Reply to
Geo

Sorry that should have said "Risk of Electric Shock"

No insulated cables.

Reply to
Geo

We've installed similar things on the Moon, haven't we? I expect now someone's doing it to us. Vegans, probably.

Reply to
Tim Streater

It's a triangular corner reflector, one of these

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That triangular arrangement reflects any radio or visible radiation straight back to where it came from. Used for monitoring ground movement amongst other things, see
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where the hillside on the left is prone to slipping and burying sweeping away the railway running alongside the river.

The same triangular reflector arrangement occurs in lots of reflectors, for example as a close-packed array in bicycle rear reflectors, although much smaller, a lot more of them, and in red plastic (at least, mine was like that, donkeys years ago!). As TS said, arrays of them are also used for bouncing laser light back from the moon, to measure the distance etc.

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Reply to
Chris Hogg

It's an alien lifeform just ripening and will propagate by emitting spores? The markings are to keep native lifeforms guessing until it's too late ? ???

Reply to
Cynic

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