Timeline of Jodrell Bank Observatory
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This is a timeline of Jodrell Bank Observatory.
- 1939 — Jodrell Bank site purchased by the University of Manchester as a botany field station.[1]
1940s
- 1945, December — Bernard Lovell arrives at Jodrell Bank with several trailers of radar equipment from World War II.[2]
- 1947 — The 66 meter Transit Telescope is constructed.[3][4]
1950s
- 1950, August — The transit telescope is used to make the first detection of radio waves from the nearby Andromeda Galaxy.[5][6]
- 1950 — Charles Husband presents first drawings of the proposed giant, fully steerable radio telescope.[7]
- 1952, September — Construction of the Mark I telescope begins.[8]
- 1957, October — The Mark I telescope becomes operational. It tracks the carrier rocket of Sputnik 1; the only telescope in the West able to do so.[9][10]
1960s
- 1960, May — Lord Nuffield pays the remaining debt on the Mark I and the observatory is renamed the Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories.[11]
- 1962 — As part of a radio-linked interferometer, the Mark I identifies a new class of compact radio sources, later recognised as quasars.[12]
- 1962 — Jodrell Bank radio telescope is mentioned in the science fiction novel A for Andromeda by Fred Hoyle and John Elliot.
- 1964 — The Mark II telescope is completed.[13]
- 1966 — The Mark I receives pictures from Luna 9, the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon.[14]
- 1966 — The Mark III telescope is completed.[15]
- 1968 — The Mark I confirms the existence of pulsars.[16]
- 1968 — The Mark I took part in the first transatlantic VLBI experiment in 1968, with other telescopes being those at Algonquin and Penticton in Canada.[17]
- 1969 — The Mark I is used for the first time in a VLBI observation, with the Arecibo radio telescope in 1969.[12]
1970s
- 1970–1971 — The Mark I is repaired and upgraded; it is renamed to the Mark IA.[15]
- 1972–1973 — The Mark I carries out a survey of radio sources; amongst these sources was the first gravitational lens, which was confirmed optically in 1979.[18]
- 1976, January — storms bring winds of around 90 mph which almost destroy the telescope. Bracing girders are added.[19]
1980s
- 1980 — The Mark IA is used as part of the new MERLIN array.[12]
- 1982 — The 42 ft telescope is built, to replace the 50 ft.[citation needed]
- 1986 — The first pulsar in a globular cluster is discovered.[12]
- 1986 — The Mark II telescope is given a new surface that is accurate to 1/3 mm.[13]
- 1987 — The Mark IA is renamed the Lovell Telescope after Bernard Lovell.[20]
1990s
- 1990 — The new 32 m Cambridge telescope at Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory is added to the MERLIN array.[12]
- 1992 — The MERLIN array becomes a national facility.[12]
- 1993 — At the request of NASA, the Lovell Telescope searches for the Mars Observer spacecraft.[21]
- 1998 — The Lovell Telescope begins participation with the SETI Project Phoenix[22][23]
