Description

Black and white photograph of Joel B. Searcy adjusting a large telescope apparatus. He is squatting down on the left while interacting with the controls at center.

Original Caption: "Joel Searcy, Cambridge, a member of the Instrumentation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, inspects instrumentation which was carried aloft by a giant balloon during "SKYLOOK" flight recently. The 1500 pound package contains a star-tracker (top) which fixes on the North Star and achieves the effect of balancing the eight inch reflecting telescope just below the star-tracker. Project SKYLOOK, is sponsored by the United States Air Force, Smithsonian Astrophyscial Observatory and MIT Instrumentation Laboratory. Purpose of the flight was to determine at what altitude star scintillation (twinkle) diminishes."