Jodrell Bank
Observatory
The Jodrell Bank Observatory (originally the
Jodrell Bank Experimental
Station, then the Nuffield
Radio Astronomy Laboratories from 1966-1999) is located near
Congleton, Cheshire in the north west of England. The observatory
is part of the University of Manchester and has played an important
role in the research of quasars and pulsars. In 1979, scientists of
Jodrell Bank announced the first detection of a gravitational lens;
which confirmed one of Einstein's theories.
The 76m Lovell Telescope at
Jodrell Bank Observatory.
The observatory was established in 1945 by Dr. Bernard Lovell, who
wanted to investigate cosmic rays after his work on radar in World
War II. One of the telescopes of the observatory honours his
name.
General information
The first radio telescope was built in 1947, but the famous "Mark
I" telescope, at the time the largest steerable dish radio
telescope in the world, 76.2 m (250 ft) in diameter, was
constructed in the mid 1950s, becoming operational in the summer of
1957, just in time for the launch of Sputnik 1, the world's first
artificial satellite. Jodrell Bank was the only installation in the
world able to track Sputnik's booster rocket by radar, and the fame
and income this brought in enabled the considerable construction
debts to be paid off.
In February 1966, Jodrell Bank tracked the USSR unmanned moon
lander Luna 9 and listened in on its facsimile transmission of
photographs from the moon's surface. The photos were sent to the
British press and published before the Soviets themselves had made
the photos public.
The Mark I telescope has been updated twice, to allow greater
sensitivity and make structural repairs. At the time of its
construction in 1957, it was the world's largest fully steerable
radio telescope and was only expected to have an operational
lifespan of 10 years. It was therefore upgraded in 1970-71 and
2001-2003. In 1987, on its 30th anniversary, the telescope was
renamed The Lovell
Telescope in Sir Bernard's honour. A second radio telescope,
the Mark II, was built at Jodrell Bank in 1964, with a diameter of
approximately 25 metres (it's parabolic, not circular), while a
third telescope, the Mark III, located some 20 miles away near
Nantwich is part of the Jodrell Bank Observatory. Other radio
telescopes are also located at the Jodrell Bank Observatory - one
which is 42 ft (13 m) in diameter, and a 7 m one which is generally
used for undergraduate teaching purposes for students of the
University. Webcams of these are available for viewing on the
Jodrell Bank webpage.
Jodrell Bank Observatory is also the base of the Multi-Element
Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN), a National Facility
run by the University of Manchester on behalf of PPARC.
Visitor facilities
The much-visited site was planted as an arboretum by Sir Bernard.
Jodrell Bank Arboretum houses the UK's national collections of
Malus and Sorbus species and the Heather
Society's Calluna collection, on 35 acres (140,000 m²). The
arboretum also features a small scale model of the solar system,
the scale being approximately 1:5,000,000,000. In 2005, as part of
the SpacedOut project, Jodrell Bank became the location
of the Sun in a 1:15,000,000 scale model of the solar system
covering the UK.
There is an educational visitors' centre at the site. In 2003 the
old science centre was demolished to make way for a new one,
expected to open in approximately 2007. In the interim, visitor
facilities are very limited. However, visitors have access to a new
path wrapping around the telescope, approximately 20 m from the
telescope's outer railway.
Statistics of the Lovell Telescope
Location:
- Latitude 53 deg 14 min 13.2 s north
- Longitude 2 deg 18 min 25.74 s west
Mass of telescope: 3200 t
Mass of bowl: 1500 t
Diameter of bowl: 76.2 m
Surface area of bowl: 5270 m²
Collecting area of bowl: 4560 m²
Height of elevation axis: 50.5 m
Maximum height above ground: 89.0 m
Radius of wheel girders: 38.5 m
Outer diameter of railway track: 107.5 m
Amount of paint for 3 coats of the bowl: 5200 L
Issue #107
