 
Members Meeting
May 21st
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Sonoma County Office of
Education (SCOE),
5340 Skylane Blvd.,
Santa Rosa, CA 95403Climb
Aboard
May 17th & 18th
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
A-26 Invader
Have Your Child's
Birthday Party at the Pacific Coast Air Museum. Contact
Al Morgan at 707-431-2856.
View
Calendar of Events
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Museum
Location & Hours
Pacific Coast Air Museum
2230
Becker Blvd.
Santa Rosa, CA 95403
707-575-7900 Phone
707-545-2813 Fax
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Hours |
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Tue
& Thu |
10:00
- 4:00 |
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Sat &
Sun |
10:00
- 4:00 |
Requested
Donation
$5.00.
Twelve & Under, None.
View
Directions & Map
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Star Gazer
The Astro-Inertial
Navigation System (ANS) was located behind the Radar
Systems Operator (RSO) rear cockpit and tracked stars
through a round, quartz window. The ANS became a highly
reliable and accurate self-contained navigation system.
The ANS primary alignment was done on the ground and
brought the inertial components to a high degree of
accuracy for the start of a mission. A "blue light"
source star tracker, which could detect and find stars
during day or night, would then continuously track stars
selected from the system's digital computer as the
changing aircraft position would bring them into view.
Equipped with data on 56 selected stars, the system
would correct inertial orientation errors with celestial
observations. The resulting accuracies told the SR-71
where it was and helped keep it on course, out of
trouble, and on the way to the selected target at speeds
of over Mach 3 at altitudes of over 80,000 feet.
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