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"There was a time when one old eccentric guy with a notebook could do something important to science. Now even the resources of a major university are often not enough."
- Jerry Pournelle

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:

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...

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.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Mines of Haldar
  More Ideas and Technology by Maurice G. Hugi
  Tech news articles related to The Mines of Haldar
  Tech news articles related to works by Maurice G. Hugi

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