Telescope in Satellite To Make First Maps Of Ultra-Violet Region

Plans are underway for the first telescope in space, Charles A. Whitney, lecturer on Astronomy, announced last night. Whitney is part of a three-man team from the College Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory which will build the telescope.

Television equipment aboard an unmanned satellite will transmit to the ground observations on the ultra-violet region of the sky. This part of the electromagnetic spectrum is so blocked by the earth's atmosphere that such measurements cannot be made from the surface.

The further possibilities of finding new sources of radiation are "unimagineable," Whitney remarked. He mentioned the chance of observing hitherto unidentified "radio stars" or the coronas of hot and cold stars.

Most of the telescope construction will be done in Cambridge, according to Whitney. He emphasized, however, that the project has not received final approval from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, although there is every expectation that it will be approved.

Work on the rocket itself and instruments other than the telescope will be undertaken by the government. The telescope will have an eight-inch parabolic mirror, reflecting into a television camera, supplied with selective radiation filters.

A four-color map of the sky can be obtained by observations from the satellite for seven months, the scientists calculate. Key to probing space with such relatively simple telescopic satellite are the ground stations, of which at least two will be needed.