1957 · Satellite Tracking Telescope · Work 1257 of 1,871
The flat roof of a university building in Moscow on a frosty October night, three telescopes in a row on wooden trestles, each a slender cream-white enamelled tube angled skyward on a white U-shaped fork with a round foot, a brass threaded ring at the front, an angled eyepiece at the rear, a black half-circle angle scale with a blank face and a clamp lever at the side, a figure in a dark winter coat and fur hat seen from directly behind, face turned fully away, bent over the nearest eyepiece, one hand on a small push-button, above a black sky full of stars with one small moving point of light.