Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 53 — page 75: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Night fighters were equipped with radar devices which give direction and range of enemy bombers on an easily translatable dial marking. Shells were equipped with fuses which picked up an echo to set a mechanism in motion which brought about a burst on the very dot. of moment of impact, or nearest proximity in the event of a miss. It will be possible with a modification of such equipment to establish the distance from the ship to the nearest point of the planet. This, of course, will not be the same thing as altitude. Any self-respecting electronic brain will be happy and proud and vastly intrigued with the job of correlating the photographic record and the radar heights to establish a surface norm for the planet corresponding to mean sea level on Earth. It is improbable that there will be oceans of water on that planet, but if there are, what pretty play will there be for someone working out tides for a planet with more than one satellite! One other general surface survey could be made before landing, pro- vided we have brought the right instruments with us. It would be very useful to know as much as possible about the temperature of the surface of the planet at as many points as possible at various times of the planetary day. Conceivably this in- formation could be collected as a continuous cruise record, possibly automatically recorded by means of a thermo-couple pyrometer adequately sensitized, or by some better device yet to be invented. INSPIRATION FROM THE PAST Provision of navigational aids has always been one of the geographer’s ways of serving mankind, In this in- stance those served have well repaid their servants. The great mariners, Cabot, Magellan, Cook, Drake were all geographers. If you have not already done so, go to a Maritime Museum and take a look at the Astrolobes and chronometers. These museums are TEN ALTIMETER comicbooks.conm