Image Sensor, Ultraviolet, Celescope

This is one of a suite of ultraviolet detectors from Project Celescope. Celescope was a battery of four telescopes developed at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in the 1960s to survey the entire ultraviolet sky, looking for unusually hot sources of energy. The detector, the smaller diameter back end of the glass tube, is based upon standard Westinghouse "Vidicon" technology used in TV systems of that day. The larger front section is a special imaging system that converts ultraviolet light into electrons and focuses them electrostatically onto the front of the Vidicon, which then scans the surface, producing a varying current that was telemetered to the ground for analysis. Celescope was flown on December 7, 1968, as part of the payload for the second Orbiting Astronomical Satellite (OAO II). The data from Celescope resulted in a catalog of over 5,000 ultraviolet colors for stars.

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory transferred this detector to the Museum in 1973.