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"I went [to the top of] Vehicle Assembly Building and looked down, and tears burst from my eyes. The size of this cathedral where the Rockets take off to go to the moon is so amazing."
- Ray Bradbury
 |
| Electro-Telescope | ||
| A device that could clearly image space battles and space ships, even from a great distance. |
The ship was hurtling toward the sun - could disaster be averted?
| ...Why not switch off the bow rockets and get it over?
 (Electro-Telescope from 'The Mines of Haldar' by Maurice Hugi) He swept the heavens with the powerful electro-telescope mounted in the roof of the control cabin. "Got it!" he ejaculated. "It's Mercury. Just come into line with our stern. The planet's pull was just sufficient to tip the scales in our favor." |
| Technovelgy from The Mines of Haldar,
by Maurice G. Hugi. Published by Scoops in 1934 Additional resources -
|
This term was also used by Ray Cummings in his 1936 story Blood of the Moon:
The silent drama of space had almost reached its climax. The little transport ship, Queen of the Starways, showed clearly etched against the starfield of the mirror grid image. And behind and above it was another shape - a long, black, queerly domed vehicle. A Nomad ship.
Compare to the Directrix, a somewhat more grandiose viewing device from E.E. 'Doc' Smith's 1942 novel Gray Lensman.
This science-fictional instrument is a variant on the idea of a heliostat telescope that uses a moving mirror to follow the sun's movement, and then beam the image to a static device.
Compare to the Photoelectric Telescope (Photoelectric Eyes) from The Cometeers (1936) by Jack Williamson, the
Liquid Mirror Telescope from Old Faithful (1934) by Raymond Z. Gallun, the
ultra-telescope ray from The Moon Weed (1931) by Harl Vincent, the
hyperspace beacon from The Repairman (1959) by Harry Harrison, and the robot observatory from Space Rating (1939) by John Berryman.
See also the Reflectocosmic Spectrometer from Buck Rogers: 2430 AD (1929) by Nowlan and Calkin, Spectro-Flash Analysis from Salvage in Space (1933) by Jack Williamson and the Telespectroscope from Cosmic Quest (1936) by Edmond Hamilton.
Around a small electro-telescope a group of officials were gathered. The telescopic image was magnified through a prism series, and was spread upon a little two-foot mirror grid so that in the gloom all might see it...
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