Jodrell Bank

The Jodrell Bank Observatory (originally the Jodrell Bank Experimental Station, then the Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories from 1966-1999) is located near Holmes Chapel, 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.

Timeline

• 1945 - Bernard Lovell arrives at Jodrell Bank, Cheshire.
• 1947 - The 66 m transit telescope is constructed.
• 1949 - The transit telescope is used to make the first detection of radio waves from the nearby Andromeda Galaxy.
• 1950 - Charles Husband presents first drawings of proposed giant, fully-steerable radio telescope.
• 1957 - Mark I telescope becomes operational. It tracks the carrier rocket of Sputnik I; the only telescope in the West able to do so.
• 1960 - Lord Nuffield pays the remaining debt on the Mark I and the observatory is renamed the Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories.
• 1962 - As part of a radio-linked interferometer, the Mark I identifies a new class of compact radio sources, later recognised as quasars.
• 1964 - The Mark II telescope is completed.
• 1966 - The Mark I receives pictures from Luna 9, the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon.
• 1968 - The Mark I confirms the existence of pulsars.
• 1969 - The Mark I is used for the first time in a VLBI observation.
• 1970/1 - The Mark I is upgraded and becomes the Mark IA.
• 1976 - January storms bring winds of around 90 mph which almost destroy the telescope. Bracing girders are added.
• 1979 - The first gravitational lens is discovered by the Mark IA.
• 1980 - The Mark IA is used as part of the new MERLIN array.
• 1986 - The first pulsar in a globular cluster is discovered. The Mark II telescope is given a new surface which is accurate to 1/3 mm.
• 1987 - The Mark IA is renamed the Lovell Telescope after Bernard Lovell.
• 1990 - The new 32 m Cambridge telescope is added to the MERLIN array.
• 1992 - The MERLIN array becomes a national facility.
• 1993 - At the request of NASA, the Lovell Telescope searches for the Mars Observer spacecraft.
• 1998 - The Lovell Telescope begins participation with the SETI project.
• 2000 - February - The Lovell Telescope searches for NASA's Mars Polar Lander
• 2000/2 - The Lovell Telescope is resurfaced increasing its sensitivity at 5 GHz by a factor of five.
• 2003 - December - The Lovell Telescope searches for the Beagle 2 lander on Mars.
• 2004 - January - Astronomers from Jodrell Bank, Australia, Italy and the US discover the first known double pulsar.
• 2004 - Minor scenes for the film of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are filmed at Jodrell Bank.
• 2005 - February - Astronomers using the Lovell Telescope discovered a galaxy that appears to be made almost entirely of dark matter.
• 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.