Position lights would suggest that if it's a view from above of something traveling on a plane it's pointed a bit down from left (250 degrees, say, if picturewise up is north), but I can also rearrange my perspective and think it's a cockeyed picture of something heading very nearly right for me that's going to pass by showing me its left side.
What took me the longest time was to realize that the white light is the masthead light, not the stern light. So instead of being a shot looking up, as with say an airplane, this image says just what it would say about a ship on the ocean: if you can see both the red and green markers, then the prow is pointed straight towards you.
And in fact this picture of an ISS resupply ship was taken from the ISS, where it was heading.
At first I thought it was strange that the prow wouldn't be the pointy end, but this ship does also go upon oceans and when it does the pointy end is up, as it is in pics like this.
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Position lights would suggest that if it's a view from above of something traveling on a plane it's pointed a bit down from left (250 degrees, say, if picturewise up is north), but I can also rearrange my perspective and think it's a cockeyed picture of something heading very nearly right for me that's going to pass by showing me its left side.
Fascinating!
bingo!
What took me the longest time was to realize that the white light is the masthead light, not the stern light. So instead of being a shot looking up, as with say an airplane, this image says just what it would say about a ship on the ocean: if you can see both the red and green markers, then the prow is pointed straight towards you.
And in fact this picture of an ISS resupply ship was taken from the ISS, where it was heading.
At first I thought it was strange that the prow wouldn't be the pointy end, but this ship does also go upon oceans and when it does the pointy end is up, as it is in pics like this.