Conning Tower & Periscope - Pearl Harbor, Oahu, HI
Posted by: denben
N 21° 22.140 W 157° 56.320
4Q E 610034 N 2363358
The USS Parche (SS-384)'s conning tower barrel and periscopes is on display at USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Waymark Code: WMRCJM
Location: Hawaii, United States
Date Posted: 06/08/2016
Views: 7
The conning tower consists of a cylinder, eight feet in diameter, located above the control room section of the submarine's pressure hull. It contains equipment for steering the submarine and firing torpedoes. There are two submarine periscopes inside the conning tower. The one located closer to the submarine is the "Observation and Navigation Periscope". It provides a wider angle and better optics than the attack periscope located next to it."
At USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park, visitors are welcomed to go inside the tower and use a periscope for a view of Ford Island, USS Arizona Memorial and Battleship Missouri Memorial.
Submarines use complex periscopes using prisms and/or advanced fiber optics instead of mirrors, and providing magnification. The overall design of the classical submarine periscope is very simple: two telescopes pointed into each other. If the two telescopes have different individual magnification, the difference between them causes an overall magnification or reduction.
Periscopes allow a submarine, when submerged at a relatively shallow depth, to search visually for nearby targets and threats on the surface of the water and in the air. When not in use, a submarine's periscope retracts into the hull. A submarine commander in tactical conditions must exercise discretion when using his periscope, since it creates a visible wake (and may also become detectable by radar, giving away the sub's position.
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