Askania
Hi Robert and all
The lense was one of a set of three ( 300mm 600mm and the mirror at 1000mm) used on the Askania kinethodilites brought to Australia as war reparations from the Peenemunde weapons range .
These optical kinetheodolites were used first at the Woomera range for bomb tracking then missile tracking. three were adopted by the Army but usage unknown.
They used a motor driven 35mm movie camera and were operated by two ( ladies) one for altitude and the other for azimuth. Very accurate tracking but soon overtaken by the more accurate Contraves devices as the missiles developed into higher speeds and range.
The history of Woomera and its unique optical missile range is described in the book " Fire Across the Desert" CoA publishing.
Hope its useful and you have a peice of interesting history ( I have the full kit )
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