This is the Super RADOT (Recording Automatic Digital Optical Tracker), a computer controlled telescope system used to track intercontinental ballistic missiles.

I operated and maintained this telescope system during 1983 and 1984.

Under the right conditions it could spot a golf ball from over 1000 miles away.

Objects could be tracked by "slaving" the Super RADOT to any of several different radars on Kwajalein, causing the system to automatically point to whatever target the radar was tracking. Objects could also be manually tracked using the joystick.

I used this telescope to track and view: Lots of incoming missiles, several outgoing missiles, the Space Shuttle, several planets, a few galaxies and nebulae, and a Soviet spy ship!

The 24" Catadioptric telescope was equipped with an extremely sensitive low-light video camera, as was the wide angle spotting scope mounted below. Atop the main telescope was a 12" diameter Cassegrain telescope with a 70mm high speed motion picture camera.

The entire system was controlled by a Perkin-Elmer 8-32 "Mini-computer", which occupied three electronic equipment racks (meaning it was about 6' wide, 6' tall, and 3' deep). When I left Kwajalein in December of 1984 the computer was scheduled to be replaced with one of the new 80x86 based IBM PCs just hitting the market!

A view of the Space Shuttle in orbit as seen through the Super RADOT's main telescope, at 240 power.

The white box around the Shuttle's image is the "CAT", or Computer Assisted Tracker. Once a target was aquired and in the box the computer could maintain the track on it's own.

We could see if the cargo bay doors were open, the remote manipulator arm, and other details. On one mission we noticed that the flaps on the Shuttle's wings appeared to be down, which seemed odd to us - why would the Shuttle be using it's wing flaps in Space? Later we heard on the radio that it was experiencing hydraulic problems, and the flaps were indeed stuck in the down position for a while.

This is the tracking console of the Super RADOT, showing (left to right) me, and my friends Nan Tindal and John Fratangelo. Nan and I were the SR1 crew, and John was Supervisor of the Optics Dept.

This is a KMR Photo Lab picture taken by Nate Jackson.