Astronomy:Timeline of Jodrell Bank Observatory

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This is a timeline of Jodrell Bank Observatory.

1930s

1940s

Observations at Jodrell Bank in 1945.
  • 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

The Mark 1 under construction.
  • 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

1990s

2000s

The Lovell telescope mid-resurfacing.
  • 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

  • 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

  1. ↑ History on U of manchester web site, accessed 24/10/2007
  2. ↑ Story of Jodrell Bank, p. 3
  3. ↑ "Jodrell Bank Observatory - The Early History". http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/public/story/early.html. Retrieved 2007-06-10. 
  4. ↑ Story of Jodrell Bank, p. 17
  5. ↑ Out of the Zenith, p. 7
  6. ↑ Astronomer by Chance, p. 175
  7. ↑ Lovell, Story of Jodrell Bank, p. 35
  8. ↑ Lovell, Story of Jodrell Bank, p. 44
  9. ↑ Lovell, Story of Jodrell Bank, p. 196
  10. ↑ Lovell, Astronomer by Chance, p. 262
  11. ↑ Story of Jodrell Bank, p. 244
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 "JBO - Milestones". http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/tech/lovell/mile.html. Retrieved 2007-05-28. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "The MKII Radio Telescope". Jodrell Bank Observatory. http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/public/story/mk2.html. Retrieved 2007-06-01. 
  14. ↑ Lovell, Story of Jodrell Bank, p. 250
    "On This Day - 3 February 1966: Soviets land probe on Moon". BBC News. 1966-02-03. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/3/newsid_4063000/4063471.stm. Retrieved 2007-04-09. 
    "The Lunar Landscape". Time Magazine. 11 February 1966. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,842468,00.html. Retrieved 2007-04-07. 
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Lovell, The Jodrell Bank Telescopes
  16. ↑ Lovell, Out of the Zenith, pp. 130-135
  17. ↑ Lovell, Out of the Zenith, pp. 67-68
  18. ↑ Lovell, Astronomer by Chance, pp. 297-301
  19. ↑ "The MKIA Radio Telescope". Jodrell Bank Observatory. http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/public/story/mk1a.html. Retrieved 2006-11-21. 
  20. ↑ "Lovell Radio Telescope refurbished". BBC News. 28 April 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2981167.stm. Retrieved 2007-04-05. 
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Rohrer, Finlo (5 September 2006). "Aye to the telescope". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5314172.stm. 
  22. ↑ "Scientists listen intently for ET". BBC News. 1 February 1998. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/52489.stm. Retrieved 2007-04-09. 
  23. ↑ "Alien hunters back on track". BBC News. 23 March 1999. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/300916.stm. Retrieved 2007-04-09. 
  24. ↑ "Earth turns its ears to Mars". BBC News. 2 October 2000. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/626952.stm. Retrieved 2007-04-09. 
    "Quiet please, we're listening to Mars". BBC News. 3 February 2000. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/629443.stm. Retrieved 2007-04-05. 
    "Mars lander search goes on". BBC News. 8 February 2000. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/635229.stm. Retrieved 2007-04-05. 
  25. ↑ "Seeing the invisible — first dark galaxy discovered?". Jodrell Bank Observatory press release. 23 February 2005. http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/news/darkgalaxy/. Retrieved 2007-05-29. 
  26. ↑ "SpacedOut Location: The Sun at Jodrell Bank". http://www.spacedout-uk.com/solar_system/solar_info.asp?site_id=2. Retrieved 2007-06-08. 
  27. ↑ "Jodrell Bank bids for world heritage status". Inside the M60. 22 March 2011. Archived from the original on 18 August 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110818141624/http://insidethem60.journallocal.co.uk/2011/03/22/jodrell-bank-bids-for-world-heritage-status/. Retrieved 2011-03-22. 
  28. ↑ "Six cultural sites added to UNESCO's World Heritage List". 7 July 2019. https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2005/. 
  29. ↑ "Jodrell Bank gains Unesco World Heritage status". BBC News. 7 July 2019. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-48893080. Retrieved 7 July 2019. 

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