Group: sliderule Message: 29770 From: Bob Gess Date: 06/03/2006
Subject: Slide Rule Sighting
Another slide rule sighting in the Australian movie: "The Dish".

"Glenn" uses his slide rule while calculating antenna look angles for
Apollo 11. The slide rule is never in sharp enough focus to determine
the scales and model, but, if I had to guess, I think it could be an
Albert Nestler 0210 (it's wooden with a white back - a somewhat
unusual combination).

The movie is a dry comedy about the radio telescope in Parkes,
Australia used to broadcast the first moonwalk to the world. It's
based on a true story, although virtually all of the details are
changed to avoid losing the audience in techie details (all of the
problems have to be easy to understand and have common sense solutions
that even a person with no satellite tracking experience could think
of).

The real true story is as fascinating as the movie, for those
interested.