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SPUTNIK-1: MOONWATCH TELESCOPE ORIGINAL AT-1 TELESCOPE USED FOR TRACKING THE SATELLITE. Enameled metal telescope on adjustable mount, 405 mm long, 92 mm diameter, mount 315 mm in height, image 1
SPUTNIK-1: MOONWATCH TELESCOPE ORIGINAL AT-1 TELESCOPE USED FOR TRACKING THE SATELLITE. Enameled metal telescope on adjustable mount, 405 mm long, 92 mm diameter, mount 315 mm in height, image 2
SPUTNIK-1: MOONWATCH TELESCOPE ORIGINAL AT-1 TELESCOPE USED FOR TRACKING THE SATELLITE. Enameled metal telescope on adjustable mount, 405 mm long, 92 mm diameter, mount 315 mm in height, image 3
SPUTNIK-1: MOONWATCH TELESCOPE ORIGINAL AT-1 TELESCOPE USED FOR TRACKING THE SATELLITE. Enameled metal telescope on adjustable mount, 405 mm long, 92 mm diameter, mount 315 mm in height, image 4
SPUTNIK-1: MOONWATCH TELESCOPE ORIGINAL AT-1 TELESCOPE USED FOR TRACKING THE SATELLITE. Enameled metal telescope on adjustable mount, 405 mm long, 92 mm diameter, mount 315 mm in height, image 5
SPUTNIK-1: MOONWATCH TELESCOPE ORIGINAL AT-1 TELESCOPE USED FOR TRACKING THE SATELLITE. Enameled metal telescope on adjustable mount, 405 mm long, 92 mm diameter, mount 315 mm in height, image 6
Lot 4

SPUTNIK-1: MOONWATCH TELESCOPE
ORIGINAL AT-1 TELESCOPE USED FOR TRACKING THE SATELLITE.
Enameled metal telescope on adjustable mount, 405 mm long, 92 mm diameter, mount 315 mm in height,

13 April 2022, 13:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$2,550 inc. premium

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SPUTNIK-1: MOONWATCH TELESCOPE

ORIGINAL AT-1 TELESCOPE USED FOR TRACKING THE SATELLITE.
Enameled metal telescope on adjustable mount, 405 mm long, 92 mm diameter, mount 315 mm in height, Serial number 02409, 50 mm aperture, 6x magnification and about a 11-degree field of view, outfitted with special measurement grid in field, concentric rings marking 1° with hatches on grid every 20 feet.
Provenance: Oleg Ivanovsky, Soviet rocket scientist and engineer; Sotheby's Russian Space History, March 16, 1996, lot 14.

Moonwatch was an international amateur science program initiated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) in order to aid professional scientists in tracking the new artificial satellites as it wasn't until 1958 when professional tracking stations came on-line. This example comes from one of the Sputnik-1's designers who also went to work on the Vostok spacecrafts and the Soviet space probes.
SEE: Masevich, A.G. & A.M. Lozinskii. "Optical Tracking Methods for the First Artificial Satellites," in: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Vol. 70, no 412, February 1958, pp 79-82.

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