
Classic Telescopes in TV, Hollywood and Movies
#1
Posted 13 December 2012 - 09:58 AM
While watching Netflix shows with my young grandson recently we stumbled across the old Dennis the Menace TV show that I used to watch as a kid. There was an interesting episode listed from the first season (1959) called "Innocents From Space." The plot centered around Mr. Wilson; remember he was retired and always kept busy with various hobbies that Dennis interfered with. In this episode he purchased a brand new Unitron Model 152- the four inch equatorial. While it didn't have the Unihex it had everything else including the actual box of Unitron eyepieces. The telescope is prominently shown in at least three long scenes, where Mr. Wilson "wheels it around" on its azimuth axis no less, LOL, changes eyepieces, looks through the 10x42 finder, observes the sun with the over the eyepiece sun filter and shows Dennis sunspots, etc. It was never called a Unitron, but instead a "Brennervarten" even though you can see the Unitron label on the focuser and the lens cap.
It was fun to see this scope in all its glory in "1959."
What old shows can you remember with neat telescopes?
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#2
Posted 13 December 2012 - 10:02 AM
#3
Posted 13 December 2012 - 10:27 AM
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#4
Posted 13 December 2012 - 10:53 AM
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#5
Posted 13 December 2012 - 02:16 PM
Note where it's pointed..into the ground!
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#6
Posted 13 December 2012 - 02:49 PM
#7
Posted 13 December 2012 - 02:55 PM

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#8
Posted 13 December 2012 - 05:50 PM
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#9
Posted 13 December 2012 - 07:19 PM
Right before people stood about 20 yards away from an ICBM
lift off, they'd have been fried in real life..Movie people must think we are as dumb as they are!

Sean Connery had a unique C8 with some wierd attachment in one of the James Bond? Movies.
#10
Posted 13 December 2012 - 10:50 PM
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#11
Posted 13 December 2012 - 11:52 PM
The movie ... "Star Trek, First Contact" has a Meade LX200 "Classic" ... all decked out with some fancy grill work.
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#12
Posted 14 December 2012 - 01:25 AM
http://www.imdb.com/...lu/vi835977753/
#13
Posted 14 December 2012 - 02:22 AM
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#14
Posted 14 December 2012 - 02:59 AM
#15
Posted 14 December 2012 - 09:17 AM
Anyone see the Newtonian on the Little Ceasar's Commerical?
Note where it's pointed..into the ground!
Yup

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#16
Posted 14 December 2012 - 11:30 AM
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#17
Posted 14 December 2012 - 12:12 PM
Laura Croft Tomb Raider movie.
(Telescope real or not real that is the question)
Alan O.
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#18
Posted 14 December 2012 - 04:42 PM
in the movie "body double"there is a questar 3 1/2in <snip>
An open movie making secret. When the filming is over someone takes home a Questar 3 1/2", free. And TV sets, cloths, widgets. Not by any means everything, every movie, but it happens. "The movie" pays for some of the things on the set.
Now, when you've got a crew of 30 or 90 people filming filming a movie, the price of a new Questar may be about 15 minutes of filming time. Or less.
I shoulda gone into movies.
Currently, all the guys in The BigBang Theory all have commercially available looking telescopes in the background of their apartments/room. The scopes have changed over time.
LGM
Secret message to someone: Hi to Kermit the Frog!
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#19
Posted 14 December 2012 - 06:08 PM
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#20
Posted 14 December 2012 - 06:57 PM
My guess is it's still sitting in the studio prop department.I'd love to know who got the complete 4 inch eq. Unitron in that 1959 Dennis the Menace" episode.

#21
Posted 14 December 2012 - 08:57 PM
#22
Posted 14 December 2012 - 11:58 PM
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#23
Posted 15 December 2012 - 12:21 AM
Japanese sci-fi film from 1962, "Gorath." A group of people watching the launch of a spaceship with several nice refractors placed in the scene for no particular reason. I'd really like to own that big one ... it looks like it's mounted on a pier.
#24
Posted 16 December 2012 - 12:36 PM
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#25
Posted 16 December 2012 - 02:29 PM
A Classic Orange C8" and a Dome Observatory if I remember right.
Alan O.