Joyce called from the radar board, “I think I’m getting an echo at 15,000, sir. It’s pretty weak.”
Miller, quiet and meticulous, delicately tuned the beam control. “Give me your fix, Joyce,” he said. “I can’t find it.”
Joyce called out his figures, in seconds of arc to three places.
“You’re right on it, Joyce,” Miller called a minute later. “I got it. Now pray it don’t get away when I boost it.”
Clay stepped over behind Miller. “Take it a few mags at a time,” he said calmly.
I watched Miller’s screen. A tiny point near the center of the screen swelled to a spec, and jumped nearly off the screen to the left. Miller centered it again, and switched to a higher power. This time it jumped less, and resolved into two tiny dots.
Step by step the magnification was increased as ring after ring of the lens antenna was thrown into play. Each time the centering operation was more delicate. The image grew until it filled a quarter of the screen. We stared at it in fascination.
It showed up in stark silhouette, in the electronic “light” of the radar scope. Two perfect discs, joined by a fine filament. As we watched, their relative positions slowly shifted, one moving across, half occluding the other.
As the image drifted, Miller worked with infinite care at his console to hold it on center, in sharp focus.