312 ANITOAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1961 



focal length and a field of 68°. It contained a threaded focusing 

 mount, making it easy to adapt to an aluminum tube. The objective 

 was 51 mm. in diameter, with a focal length of 180 mm., or slightly 

 more than 7 inches. The objective and the eyepiece were to be 

 mounted in an aluminum tube, 8.5 inches long. A front surface alu- 

 minized or silvered mirror was set at a 45° angle in front of the ob- 

 jective, thereby permitting the observer to watch his slry area in com- 

 fort, irrespective of the satellite's altitude above the horizon. This 

 Moonwatch telescope could, under excellent seeing conditions, acquire 

 objects as faint as the 7th or 8th magnitude or even a little fainter, and 

 its wide field of view would be adequate to acquire a satellite even 

 though preliminary information concerning its position and orbit was 

 inexact. 



The Observatory could not provide instruments for the teams, so 

 that it was necessary for the individual members of the teams either 

 to make or purchase their own telescopes, or to rely upon the largesse 

 of local firms, organizations, and others who were interested in sup- 

 porting the project. The optics for the Moonwatch telescope could 

 be purchased for about $20, and the assembly could be done in a home 

 workshop; an estimated 40 percent of the observers built their own. 

 Most of the others purchased the so-called EDS COPE (a monoscope) , 

 manufactured in New Jersey, for about $50. Thus, at a relatively 

 low cost, each Moonwatch team was able to equip itself with the needed 

 optical instruments, and at its own expense. 



At the same pilot Moonwatch station, tests were made of a number 

 of means of keeping time. The result was the acceptance of an in- 

 expensive chronograph that could be adjusted to a rate of 2 seconds 

 of gain or loss per day and could be checked periodically against 

 short-wave radio time signals. 



Early in 1957 a Moonwatch steering committee was appointed to 

 provide scientific and technical advice and to coordinate Moonwatch 

 observations with other phases of the optical tracking program. The 

 chairman of the committee was Dr. George Van Biesbroeck of the 

 Yerkes Observatory, who was a consultant to the Smithsonian. 



Leon Campbell, Jr., had already been appointed supervisor of 

 Moonwatch. He had joined the staff of the Observatory in the fall 

 of the previous year and had devoted most of his time to public in- 

 formation, but some also to the formal organization of the visual 

 observing program. While Dr. Armand Spitz had instituted the 

 initial steps of Moonwatch, his duties at the Spitz Laboratories did 

 not allow him sufficient time to attend to the organization of the teams. 



Most of the stations planned to use the typical Moonwatch mono- 

 scope. Since that telescope would not, however, be able to acquire 

 objects much fainter than the 8th magnitude, an instrument of 



