79-01-B4

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Telescope II

Transcript On the last broadcast I spoke of the breakthrough in the field of astronomy the people at Rand Instruments Corporation in Atlanta have made. I don't know whether "spinoff" is the right phrase, but from their development of a portable telescope has come something called a "Surveillance Network." If you didn't hear the previous commentary it had to do with Rand's portable telescope mounted on a trailer carriage. It is now possible to escape city sky glow, the bane of astronomers, without having to build great new observatories. Part of the breakthrough is a light amplification system which brings a 40 inch scope up to nearly the power of the largest telescopes. Or, as one of the men responsible for this development said, "We can see a man light a cigarette 20 miles away." And that's the clue to what I called a spinoff. Rand has developed a system whereby we can look sideways instead of up. This can be "sideways" across a border, ground to ground, it can be from shore to sea, or ground to air. In other words, surveillance against a possible surprise attack is possible day or night with movement of even individuals visible at up to 20 miles. Five portable telescopes 20 miles apart can give complete surveillance of a line 120 miles long. More important, they constitute a network tied into a central command post miles to the rear. There, a commander would instantly see on video screens whatever movement there was 20 miles deep on a 120 mile front. In addition, there would be mobile field headquarters controlling the scanners about 100 yards behind each one. It is also possible, if there are time problems, to simply focus the 'scope and use it for direct viewing without the video hookup. One can think of any number of places where such a surveillance system would be invaluable; The NATO line for one. Then there are places such as Rhodesia where terrorists are a constant and murderous threat, or the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, the Middle East and countless other trouble spots. The Rand people have not pretended they can solve all surveillance problems 100 percent or that their surveillance network will prevent war. But if it can reduce the element of surprise by 50 percent, that could mean perhaps 50 percent loss of life. And all of this came to be because two men saw a market possibility in the fact that increasing numbers of observatories were being ineffective by the increasing spread of sky glow from city lights. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 79-01-B4 Production Date 01/??/1979 Book/Page RihoH-311 Audio Youtube? No
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