Bruce MacDonald posted the following: >I hope this is not considered off-topic as it does relate to visual >satellite observing, as done years ago. I found the following thread on >a >website forum and I thought SeeSat-L subscribers might be interested in >it. >http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/1372126/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1#Post1372126 >Perhaps some veteran Moonwatch observers may even have used one in the >early >days of the Space Race? Being a veteran Moonwatch observer - almost 50 years ago!! - I can say a bit about this telescope. I actually had one for many years but lent it to a youngster at the time and he disappeared with it. The optical quality was pretty good for a 2 inch objective and it had a nice big eyepiece. I think they were made by Edmund Scientific from war surplus - there should still be a lot floating around as some Moonwatch stations may have had a few dozen of them. They were cheaply made and I guess "thrown" together to provide a telescope to meet the MOONWATCH specs for a suitable tracking telescope. Another "Moonwatch" telescope around that time was made by Unitron but a lot more fancy and expensive- came on a small mount that one could put on a table and had az/alt graduated circles. The optical quality of the objective left much to be desired - I remember tracking Explorer 19 with it - if memory serves me correct this was a small balloon for air density measurements. Again this had a very nice eyepiece. The Unitron was not supplied as part of a Moonwatch station- I purchased mine provately and still have it, although a little the worse for wear! Still on the subject of MOONWATCH another instrument is use was the M8 elbow telescope- I think it came out of tanks originally? - again 2 inch aperture and erfle eyepiece. I think this was issued to some Moonwatch teams as "standard" equipment. I still have mine. Finally because the above telescopes could not track the Vanguard satellites when at apogee, the so called Apogee telescope was issued to some MOONWATCH teams. This consisted of a 5 inch f/5 lens- I believe it was originally used on large Naval warship guns ? - and an M8 attached to it, minus its 2 inch objective. Magnification was around 20x and field of view about 2.25 degrees. The optical quality of the 5 inch lens also left a little to be desired. I still have my Apogee telescope. Cheers Greg ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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