Timeline of Jodrell Bank Observatory
This is a timeline of Jodrell Bank Observatory.
1930s
[edit]- 1939 — Jodrell Bank site purchased by the University of Manchester as a botany field station.[1]
1940s
[edit]
- 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
[edit]
- 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
[edit]- 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
[edit]- 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
[edit]- 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
[edit]- 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]
2000s
[edit]
- 2000, February — The Lovell Telescope searches for NASA's Mars Polar Lander.[24]
- 2000 — Placebo recorded the video for The Bitter End at Jodrell Bank.[citation needed]
- 2000–2002 — The Lovell Telescope is resurfaced, increasing its sensitivity at 5 GHz by a factor of five.[citation needed]
- 2003, December — The Lovell Telescope searches for the Beagle 2 lander on Mars.[citation needed]
- 2004, January — Astronomers from Jodrell Bank, Australia, Italy and the U.S. discover the first known double pulsar.[citation needed]
- 2004 — Minor scenes for the film of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are filmed at Jodrell Bank.[citation needed]
- 2005, February — Astronomers using the Lovell Telescope discovered a galaxy that appears to be made almost entirely of dark matter.[25]
- 2005, March — Jodrell Bank becomes the centre of the World's largest scale model of the Solar System as part of the Spaced Out project.[26]
- 2006, September — Jodrell Bank wins the BBC's online competition to find the UK's greatest "Unsung Landmark".[21]
2010s
[edit]- 2011, March — Jodrell Bank is included on the UK Tentative List for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site[27]
- 2019, July — The observatory becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[28][29]
References
[edit]- ^ History on U of manchester web site, accessed 24/10/2007
- ^ Story of Jodrell Bank, p. 3
- ^ "Jodrell Bank Observatory - The Early History". Retrieved 10 June 2007.
- ^ Story of Jodrell Bank, p. 17
- ^ Out of the Zenith, p. 7
- ^ Astronomer by Chance, p. 175
- ^ Lovell, Story of Jodrell Bank, p. 35
- ^ Lovell, Story of Jodrell Bank, p. 44
- ^ Lovell, Story of Jodrell Bank, p. 196
- ^ Lovell, Astronomer by Chance, p. 262
- ^ Story of Jodrell Bank, p. 244
- ^ a b c d e f "JBO - Milestones". Retrieved 28 May 2007.
- ^ a b "The MKII Radio Telescope". Jodrell Bank Observatory. Retrieved 1 June 2007.
- ^ Lovell, Story of Jodrell Bank, p. 250
"On This Day - 3 February 1966: Soviets land probe on Moon". BBC News. 3 February 1966. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
"The Lunar Landscape". Time Magazine. 11 February 1966. Retrieved 7 April 2007. - ^ a b Lovell, The Jodrell Bank Telescopes
- ^ Lovell, Out of the Zenith, pp. 130-135
- ^ Lovell, Out of the Zenith, pp. 67-68
- ^ Lovell, Astronomer by Chance, pp. 297-301
- ^ "The MKIA Radio Telescope". Jodrell Bank Observatory. Retrieved 21 November 2006.
- ^ "Lovell Radio Telescope refurbished". BBC News. 28 April 2003. Retrieved 5 April 2007.
- ^ a b Rohrer, Finlo (5 September 2006). "Aye to the telescope". BBC News.
- ^ "Scientists listen intently for ET". BBC News. 1 February 1998. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
- ^ "Alien hunters back on track". BBC News. 23 March 1999. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
- ^ "Earth turns its ears to Mars". BBC News. 2 October 2000. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
"Quiet please, we're listening to Mars". BBC News. 3 February 2000. Retrieved 5 April 2007.
"Mars lander search goes on". BBC News. 8 February 2000. Retrieved 5 April 2007. - ^ "Seeing the invisible — first dark galaxy discovered?". Jodrell Bank Observatory press release. 23 February 2005. Retrieved 29 May 2007.
- ^ "SpacedOut Location: The Sun at Jodrell Bank". Archived from the original on 13 December 2005. Retrieved 8 June 2007.
- ^ "Jodrell Bank bids for world heritage status". Inside the M60. 22 March 2011. Archived from the original on 18 August 2011. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
{{cite news}}: External link in|publisher= - ^ "Six cultural sites added to UNESCO's World Heritage List". UNESCO. 7 July 2019.
- ^ "Jodrell Bank gains Unesco World Heritage status". BBC News. 7 July 2019. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
Books
[edit]- Lovell, Bernard (1968). Story of Jodrell Bank. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-217619-6.
- Lovell, Bernard (1973). Out of the Zenith: Jodrell Bank, 1957-70. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-217624-2.
- Lovell, Bernard (1985). The Jodrell Bank Telescopes. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-858178-5.
- Lovell, Bernard (1990). Astronomer by Chance. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-55195-8.