But it was bright sunshine over Nebraska at the time. I have a hard time seeing in the daytime a 747 flying at 35,000+ feet if it has no contrail to help point it out. I suspect the Enterprise was higher than that since the interceptor jet was climbing hard to get a good look.
You've just reiterated my point. An observer on the ground at night with their naked eye would be able to see "something" but could they identify it as a starship? I doubt it.
In that case we've both done a splendid job in talking past each other!
That still sounds like a Prime Directive violation in the making. For instance, a primitive civilization could plausibly take religiously-motivated actions whenever an uncharted astronomical object is noticed, such as sacrificing people to their gods. If such action were taken upon the mere arrival of a starship to survey the planet, even without the natives knowing what the object is that has suddenly appeared in their night sky, then there would be blood on the Federation's hands. The arrival of the starship would have altered the course of their development. It would be better and more in keeping with the principle of non-interference to go completely invisibly.
a unknown satellite suddenly appears during the mid 1960's would quickly have pulled the attention of the military (east and west), and then they can't detect it on radar?
I think this is a key point. Mostly, one just needs to keep sunlight from reflecting off the hull and bounce it away from a planet. Surely, deflectors that can handle photon torpedo blasts and phaser strikes can deal with a little sunshine.
And if deflectors could make the starship invisible to ground-based radar, then that makes the case for having the capability of deflecting visible light only that much stronger.
I think we're meant to assume the hull was built the same, just painted gray.
Not necessarily - stealth aircraft are designed to not reflect radar waves (or at least minimize radar reflection), but they're clearly visible when you look at 'em.
Deflectors aren't material shields. Technobabble in TOS "Obsession"
Yeah, that was pushing it. YMMV.
Yeah, TAS fan that I am, I still had to head-canon it as to something like that. Deflector shield generator, maybe. The Vendorian's change of form effect was similar to a transporter sparkle, IIRC, so that suggests a broad range of capabilities. Topic drift, to be sure....
Greebles? Did someone say my name?
