posted
Yeah, ditto. The dome itself need not be a dedicated, directional sensor - and if it were, how do all other starships sense stuff above them?
For what it's worth, I've always thought those darker panels on the secondary hull underside were some sort of sensor suite too, like the phased array panels on some USN warships.
posted
The geometry here is worse than it looks. The only scanning direction not obscured by the ship's structures would be directly forward; port and starboard are completely blocked by the pylons and the nacelles.
As for scanning above the saucer, that's what the dome atop the bridge is for!
posted
Hmmm...I'm sure that the secsor pallate can scan "through" the ship- just as it can through asteroids and anythng else without leaving a gaping blind spot in coverage.
The illustration where the Shlly has no connection comes from the DS9TM (and we've all been over the numerous errors in that rushed "starships" section).
The 'Raging Queen" arrangment of a bunch of nacelle pylons holding up the saucer is inexcusably lame- I'm not building one of those.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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posted
There are acctually six boxes on the lower done of the Excelsior, rather than the four of the Constitution, so I think they may infact not be blocked by the pilons.
If the original Excelsior could saucer seperate, then the aft facing one would be clear as well.
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posted
Aren't they just floodlights for the saucer illumination?
ALSO - as I said before - there is nothing to stop scanning THROUGH or BEYOND the ship... just refocus the sesnsors to a point beyond. I'm sure what ever they use can penetrate the hull.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
While light does seem to come from the forward facing box, none of the others seem to shine any light on the ship, though they do glow.
And on the topic of sensors, is that what the grey boxes added to the Enterpise-B are supposed to be? They look like they could be a larger, earlier version of the Enterprise-D's upper and lower sensors.
posted
I've always thought them to be sensor palettes of the swappable kind. If you compare that area to the original Excelsior model, it certainly looks replaceable to me - sorta like the lateral sensor array on Galaxies and Intrepids, which are also supposed to be modularized.
posted
They could be escape pod hatches...or pinball flippers made to deflect torpedos away from the bridge.
Targeting sensors for the phaser array seems the most likely thing though.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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posted
I like the pinball flippers idea, great for swatting work bees when at starbase...
-------------------- Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil...prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon...
Hmmm...I much prefer your large computer core over the nonexistant one on the "B" (mabye it was coming on tuesday?), particularly as this is a ship from the Dominion War and the Excelsior family of ships would have undergone many upgardes/refits over the decades.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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