Prototype Flight Model, Secondary Emission Cathode (SEC) Vidicon tube

This is a complete prototype flight model of an image tube designed and utilized by John Lowrance in the mid-to-late1970s for electronic imaging capabilities for space telescope applications, notably for the Hubble Space Telescope. The vidicon portion was manufactured by Westingouse (07138 WX-32193 S/N 77-35-066). It is one of several examples accessioned from John Lowrance's company that represent the state of the art for this class of detector at the time NASA decided to switch from this technology to solid state CCD detectors for the Wide Field Planetary Camera.