Lovell Telescope
Encyclopedia
The Lovell Telescope is a radio telescope
at Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Goostrey
, Cheshire
in the north-west of England
. When it was constructed in 1955, the telescope was the largest steerable dish radio telescope in the world at 76.2 m (250 ft) in diameter;
it is now the third largest, after the Green Bank
telescope in West Virginia
, USA, and the Effelsberg
telescope in Germany
.
It was originally known as the 250 ft (76.2 m) telescope or the Radio Telescope at Jodrell Bank, before becoming the Mark I telescope around 1961 when future telescopes (the Mark II
, III
, and IV) were being discussed. It was renamed to the Lovell Telescope in 1987 after Bernard Lovell
, and became a Grade I listed building in 1988. The telescope forms part of the MERLIN
and European VLBI Network
arrays of radio telescopes.
Both Bernard Lovell
and Charles Husband
were knighted for their roles in creating the telescope. In September 2006, the telescope won the BBC's online competition to find the UK's greatest "Unsung Landmark". 2007 marked the 50th anniversary of the telescope.
If the air is clear enough, the Mark I telescope can be seen from high-rise buildings such as the Beetham Tower
in Manchester
and from as far away as the Pennines
, Winter Hill
in Lancashire
, Snowdonia
, Beeston Castle
in Cheshire
, and the Peak District
. It can also be seen from the Terminal 1 restaurant area and departure lounges of Manchester Airport.
built the Transit Telescope at Jodrell Bank in the late 1940s. This was a 218 ft (66.4 m)-diameter radio telescope that could only point directly upwards; the next logical step was to build a telescope that could look at all parts of the sky so that more sources could be observed, as well as for longer integration times. Although the Transit Telescope had been designed and constructed by the astronomers that used it, a fully steerable telescope would need to be professionally designed and constructed; the first challenge was to find an engineer willing to do the job. This turned out to be Charles Husband
, whom Lovell first met on 8 September 1949.
Two 15-inch (38-cm) gun turret bearings were purchased cheaply in 1950; these came from the World War II
battleships HMS Revenge
and Royal Sovereign
, which were being broken up at the time. The bearings became the two main altitude rotator bearings of the telescope, with the appropriate parts of the telescope being designed around them. Husband presented the first drawings of the proposed giant, fully steerable radio telescope in 1950. After refinements, these plans were detailed in a "Blue Book", which was presented to the DSIR on 20 March 1951; the proposal was approved in March 1952.
Construction began on 3 September 1952. The foundations for the telescope were completed on 21 May 1953 after being sunk 90 ft (27.4 m) into the ground. it then took until Mid-March 1954 to get the double railway lines completed due to their required accuracy. The central pivot was delivered to the site on 11 May 1954, and the final bogie
in mid-April 1955.
The telescope bowl was originally going to have a wire mesh surface to observe at wavelengths between 1 and 10 meters (3.2 and 32 feet); this was changed to a steel surface so that the telescope could observe at the 21 cm (8 in) hydrogen line
, which was discovered in 1951. Also, in February 1954 Lovell and the Air Ministry
met to see if funding could be made available for improving the accuracy of the dish so that it could be used on centimeter wavelengths, for research at these wavelengths for the Ministry as well as "other purposes". Although the funding was not ultimately made available from the Air Ministry, the planning process had already progressed too far and so this improvement was made anyway.
The telescope was constructed so that the bowl could be completely inverted. Originally, it was intended to use a movable tower at the base of the telescope to change the receivers at the focus. However, the movable tower was never built, due jointly to funding constraints and the fact that much of the receiver equipment was placed at the base of the telescope rather than at the focus. Instead, receivers were mounted on 50-foot (15-m) long steel tubes, which were then inserted by a winch into the top of the aerial tower while the bowl was inverted. The cables from the receivers then ran down the inside of this tube, which could then be connected when the telescope was pointed at the zenith
. Associated receiver equipment could then be placed either in the small, swinging laboratory directly underneath the surface; in rooms at the tops of the two towers; at the base girders, or in the control building.
The telescope moved for the first time on 3 February 1957: by an inch. It was first moved azimuthally under power on 12 June 1957; the bowl was tilted under power for the first time on 20 June 1957. By the end of July the dish surface was completed, and first light was on 2 August 1957; the telescope did a drift scan across the Milky Way
at 160 MHz, with the bowl at the zenith. The telescope was first controlled from the control room on 9 October 1957, by a purpose-built analogue computer.
There were large cost overruns with the telescope's construction, mainly due to the steeply rising cost of steel at the time the telescope was constructed. The original grant for the telescope's construction came jointly from the Nuffield Foundation
and the government; this amounted to £335,000. The government increased its share of the funding several times as the cost of the telescope rose; other money came from private donations. The final part of the debt from the construction of the telescope, £50,000, was paid off by Lord Nuffield and the Nuffield Foundation
on 25 May 1960 (partly due to the telescope's early, very public role in space probe tracking; see below), and Jodrell Bank observatory was renamed to the Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories. The final total cost for the telescope was £700,000.
to upgrade and repair the telescope to the Mark IA. The upgrade was carried out in three phases, phase 1 lasting between September 1968 and February 1969, phase 2 between September and November 1969 and phase 3 between August 1970 and November 1971.
The first phase saw the addition of an inner railway track, which was designed to take a third of the weight of the telescope. The outer railway track, which had been decaying and sinking over the previous years, was relaid in the second phase. Also, four bogie
s were added on the inner track, along with their steelwork, and the existing bogies on the outer track were overhauled.
The third phase saw the biggest changes; a new, more accurate bowl surface was constructed in front of the old surface, meaning that the telescope could be used on wavelengths as small as 6 cm, and the central "bicycle wheel" support was added. A new computer control system was also put in place (reusing the Ferranti
Argus 104 computer from the Mark II
); fatigue cracks in the cones connecting the bowl to the towers were repaired and the central antenna was lengthened and strengthened. Tragically, in January 1972 the hoist holding two engineers to the central antenna snapped, causing grave injuries to both engineers and resulting in the death of one of them.
The Mark IA upgrade was formally completed on 16 July 1974, when the telescope was handed back to the University. Due to increases in the cost of steel during the upgrade, the final amount for the upgrade was £664,793.07.
By the 1990s, the telescope surface was becoming badly corroded. In 2001-2003, the telescope was resurfaced, increasing its sensitivity at 5 GHz by a factor of five. A holographic profiling technique was used on the surface, meaning that the surface works optimally at wavelengths of 5 cm (compared to 18 cm on the old surface). A new drive system was installed, which provides a much higher pointing accuracy. The outer track was relaid, and the focal tower was strengthened so that it could support heavier receivers.
In 2007 the telescope needed a new wheel, as the old wheel had cracked; in 2008 another new tyre was needed after a second wheel cracked. These are the only two wheel changes needed since the telescope started operation in 1957.
The presence (as at 2010) of two breeding pairs of wild peregrine falcon
s (nesting one in each of the telescope's two support towers) prevents the nuisance of pigeon infestation (by droppings fouling, and their body heat affecting sensitive instrument readings) that some other radio telescopes suffer from.
The telescope became operational in the summer of 1957, just in time for the launch of Sputnik 1
, the world's first artificial satellite. While the transmissions from Sputnik itself could easily be picked up by a household radio
, the Lovell Telescope was the only telescope capable of tracking Sputnik's booster rocket by radar; it first located it just before midnight on 12 October 1957. It also located Sputnik 2
's carrier rocket at just after midnight on 16 November 1957.
The telescope also took part in some of the early work on satellite. In February and March 1963, the telescope transmitted signals via the moon and Echo II
, a NASA
balloon satellite at 750 km (466 mi) altitude, to the Zimenki Observatory in the USSR. Some signals were also relayed from the USA to the USSR via Jodrell Bank.
The Lovell Telescope was used to track both Soviet and American probes aimed at the Moon
in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In terms of American space probes, the telescope tracked Pioneer 1
from 11 to 13 November 1958, Pioneer 3
in December 1958, and Pioneer 4
in March 1959. The telescope tracked Pioneer 5
between 11 March and 26 June 1960, and was also used to send commands to the probe, including the one to separate the probe from its carrier rocket and the ones to turn on the more powerful transmitter when the probe was 8 million miles (12.9 million km) away. It also received data from Pioneer 5, and was the only telescope in the world capable of doing so at the time. The last signal was picked up from the probe at a distance of 36.2 million kilometers on the 26 June 1960.
The telescope also tracked the Soviet moon probes, including Lunik II from 13 to 14 September 1959 as it hit the moon; this was proven by the telescope by measuring the effect of the moon's gravity on the probe, and Luna 3
around 4 October 1959. Also, the telescope tracked Luna 9
in February 1966, the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon
. The telescope listened in on its facsimile
transmission of photographs from the moon's surface. The photos were sent to the British press - the probe transmitted, likely intentionally to increase chances of reception, in the international format for image transmission by newswire - and published before the Soviets themselves had made the photos public.
The telescope tracked Luna 10
, a Russian satellite put into orbit around the Moon, in April 1966, and Zond 5
in September 1968, a Russian probe that was launched at the moon, around which it sling-shotted before returning to Earth. The telescope did not track Apollo 11
, as it was tracking Luna 15
in July 1969. However, a 50 ft (15.2 m) telescope at Jodrell Bank was used at the same time to track Apollo 11
.
, a Russian satellite en route to Venus, in 19–20 May 1961. However, it was not possible to confirm the origin of the signals. A few years later, in December 1962, the telescope tracked and received data from Mariner 2
. On 18 October 1967, the telescope received signals from, and tracked, Venera 4
, a Russian probe to Venus.
in 1962-3, and Mars 2
and Mars 3
in 1971 (amidst the upgrade of the telescope to the Mark IA). In more recent years, it has also searched for several lost Mars spacecraft, including NASA
's Mars Observer
spacecraft in 1993, Mars Polar Lander
in 2000,
and the Beagle 2
lander on Mars in 2003. However, it did not succeed in locating any of them.
was being built, the telescope was on standby for "Project Verify" (also known by the codewords "Lothario" and "Changlin") between April 1962 and September 1963. During strategic alerts, a 'pulse transmitter, receiver and display equipment' could be connected to the telescope to scan known Russian launch sites for indications of launches of ICBMs and/or IRBMs. During the Cuban Missile Crisis
in October 1962, the telescope was discreetly turned towards the Iron Curtain
to provide a few minute's warning of any missiles that might have been launched.
However, the actual observations made with the telescope differ from these original objectives, and are outlined in the following sections.
. The telescope was also used to receive messages bounced off the Moon (a "moonbounce
") as part of the 50th anniversary First Move festival. In April 1961, a radar echo from Venus was achieved using the telescope while the planet was at a close approach, confirming measurements of the distance of the planet made by American telescopes.
and M82
galaxies. The motion of these clouds either towards or away from us either redshift
s or blueshifts the line, allowing the velocity to the cloud to be measured. This provides a probe of the internal dynamics of galaxies, and can also provide a measurement of the rate of expansion
of the universe.
and giant stars; the first astronomical maser
s. OH masers emit on four frequencies around 18 cm (7 in), which are easily observable on the telescope. As part of MERLIN
, the telescope is regularly used to construct maps of maser regions.
In 1968, the telescope observed the coordinates of the recently discovered pulsar
, confirming its existence and investigating the dispersion measure. It was also used to make the first detection of polarization of the pulsar's radiation. This marked the start of a substantial amount of work investigating pulsars at Jodrell, which is still ongoing. In the 30 years following the discovery of pulsars, the telescope discovered over 100 new pulsars (and astronomers at Jodrell Bank discovered around 2/3 of the total number using the Lovell and other telescopes). 300 pulsars are regularly observed using either the Lovell, or a nearby 42-foot (13-m) dish.
The telescope was involved in the discovery of millisecond pulsars, and also discovered the first pulsar in a globular cluster in 1986—a millisecond pulsar in the Messier 28
globular cluster. In September 2006, the results of three years of observing a double pulsar, PSR J0737-3039
, with the Lovell telescope, as well as with the Parkes
and Green Bank Telescope
s, were announced — confirming that the general theory of relativity is accurate to 99.5%.
Between 1972 and 1973, the telescope was used for "a detailed survey of the radio sources in a limited area of the sky … up to the sensitivity limit of the instrument". Among the objects catalogued was the first gravitational lens
, which was confirmed optically in 1979 after its position was found to coincide with a pair of faint blue stars by using the Mark I as an interferometer with the Mark II
. The telescope was also involved in the detection of the first Einstein ring
in 1998, in conjunction with observations made with the Hubble Space Telescope
.
s drove the development of interferometry techniques in the 1950s; the Lovell telescope had an advantage due to its large collecting area, meaning that high sensitivity interferometer measurements can be made relatively quickly using it. As a result, the telescope featured heavily in the discovery of quasar
s.
Interferometry at Jodrell Bank started before the Lovell telescope was constructed, using the Transit Telescope with a 35 square meter broadside array to determine the size of radio-loud nebula
e. Once construction of the Lovell telescope was complete, the broadside array was put on a steerable mount and the pair were used as a tracking radio interferometer. This was then used to determine the 2D shape of quasars on the sky.Rowson (1963) In the summer of 1961, a 25-foot (8-m) diameter parabaloid telescope was constructed (it was made of aluminium tubing and was mounted on the rotating structure of an old defence radar). This was then used as a steerable interferometer with the Mark I, with a resolution of 0.3 arcseconds, to determine the sizes of some high-redshift (z~0.86) quasars.
The Mark II
telescope once constructed was also used as an interferometer with the Lovell telescope. This has a baseline of 425 m (1,394 ft) (meaning that it can synthesize a telescope with 425 m diameter), giving it a resolution of around 0.5 arcminutes. This telescope pair has been used to carry out survey work, and to determine the positions of faint radio objects. Also, one of the drivers behind the construction of the Mark III
was to use it as an interferometer with the Mark I to carry out a survey of radio sources.
The telescope took part in the first transatlantic interferometer experiment in 1968, with other telescopes being those at Algonquin
and Penticton in Canada. It was first used as an interferometer with the Arecibo
radio telescope in 1969.
In 1980, it was used as part of the new MERLIN
array with a series of smaller radio telescopes controlled from Jodrell Bank. With baselines of up to 217 km (135 mi), this gave a resolution around 0.05 arcminutes. An upgraded version of this became a national facility in 1992. It has also been used in Very Long Baseline Interferometry
, with telescopes across Europe (the European VLBI Network
), giving a resolution of around 0.001 arcseconds. Around half of the telescope's observing time is now spent doing interferometry with other telescopes. It is planned that the telescope will work as part of an interferometer with the Radioastron (Russian) and VLBI Space Observatory Programme (Japanese) orbital radio satellites, providing yet larger baselines and higher resolutions.
detections made at Arecibo
between 1998 and the end of 2003. No signals were detected. In February 2005, astronomers using the Lovell Telescope discovered the galaxy VIRGOHI21
that appears to be made almost entirely of dark matter
.
Radio telescope
A radio telescope is a form of directional radio antenna used in radio astronomy. The same types of antennas are also used in tracking and collecting data from satellites and space probes...
at Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Goostrey
Goostrey
Goostrey is an old farming village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is located off Junction 18 of the M6 motorway, near Jodrell Bank Observatory. According to the 2001 Census, the civil parish had a total population of...
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
in the north-west of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. When it was constructed in 1955, the telescope was the largest steerable dish radio telescope in the world at 76.2 m (250 ft) in diameter;
it is now the third largest, after the Green Bank
Green Bank Telescope
The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope is the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope and the world's largest land-based movable structure. It is part of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory site at Green Bank, West Virginia, USA. The telescope honors the name of the late Senator...
telescope in West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
, USA, and the Effelsberg
Effelsberg
The Effelsberg 100-m Radio Telescope is a radio telescope in the Ahrgebirge in Bad Münstereifel, district of Euskirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.- Geography :...
telescope in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
It was originally known as the 250 ft (76.2 m) telescope or the Radio Telescope at Jodrell Bank, before becoming the Mark I telescope around 1961 when future telescopes (the Mark II
Mark II (radio telescope)
The Mark II is a radio telescope located at Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Goostrey, Cheshire, in the north-west of England. It was built on the site of the 218 ft Transit Telescope. Construction was completed in 1964...
, III
Mark III (radio telescope)
The Mark III was a portable and fully steerable radio telescope located at Wardle, near Nantwich, Cheshire in the north-west of England . Constructed in 1966, it was remotely controlled from Jodrell Bank Observatory, and was mainly used as part of the MERLIN radio telescope network...
, and IV) were being discussed. It was renamed to the Lovell Telescope in 1987 after Bernard Lovell
Bernard Lovell
Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell OBE, FRS is an English physicist and radio astronomer. He was the first Director of Jodrell Bank Observatory, from 1945 to 1980.-Early Life:...
, and became a Grade I listed building in 1988. The telescope forms part of the MERLIN
MERLIN
The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of STFC as a National Facility.The array consists of up to seven radio...
and European VLBI Network
European VLBI Network
The European VLBI Network was formed in 1980 by a consortium of five of the major radio astronomy institutes in Europe . Since 1980, the EVN and the Consortium has grown to include 9 institutes with 12 radio telescopes in 8 western European countries as well as associated institutes with...
arrays of radio telescopes.
Both Bernard Lovell
Bernard Lovell
Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell OBE, FRS is an English physicist and radio astronomer. He was the first Director of Jodrell Bank Observatory, from 1945 to 1980.-Early Life:...
and Charles Husband
Charles Husband
Sir Henry Charles Husband was a leading architect and consulting engineer in Great Britain. His offices were based in Sheffield, England. He designed bridges and major civil engineering works and had a role in designing the Jodrell Bank radio telescope.- Biography :Husband was educated at King...
were knighted for their roles in creating the telescope. In September 2006, the telescope won the BBC's online competition to find the UK's greatest "Unsung Landmark". 2007 marked the 50th anniversary of the telescope.
If the air is clear enough, the Mark I telescope can be seen from high-rise buildings such as the Beetham Tower
Beetham Tower, Manchester
Beetham Tower is a landmark 47-storey residential skyscraper in Manchester city centre, England. Completed in 2006, it is named after the developers, Beetham Organization, was designed by Ian Simpson, and built by Carillion....
in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
and from as far away as the Pennines
Pennines
The Pennines are a low-rising mountain range, separating the North West of England from Yorkshire and the North East.Often described as the "backbone of England", they form a more-or-less continuous range stretching from the Peak District in Derbyshire, around the northern and eastern edges of...
, Winter Hill
Winter Hill (Lancashire)
Winter Hill is a hill on the border of the boroughs of Chorley, Blackburn with Darwen and Bolton, in North West England. It is located on Rivington Moor, Chorley and is high...
in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, Snowdonia
Snowdonia
Snowdonia is a region in north Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three National Parks in Wales, in 1951.-Name and extent:...
, Beeston Castle
Beeston Castle
Beeston Castle is a former Royal castle in Beeston, Cheshire, England , perched on a rocky sandstone crag above the Cheshire Plain. It was built in the 1220s by Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester, , on his return from the Crusades...
in Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, and the Peak District
Peak District
The Peak District is an upland area in central and northern England, lying mainly in northern Derbyshire, but also covering parts of Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, and South and West Yorkshire....
. It can also be seen from the Terminal 1 restaurant area and departure lounges of Manchester Airport.
Conception and construction of the Mark I
Bernard LovellBernard Lovell
Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell OBE, FRS is an English physicist and radio astronomer. He was the first Director of Jodrell Bank Observatory, from 1945 to 1980.-Early Life:...
built the Transit Telescope at Jodrell Bank in the late 1940s. This was a 218 ft (66.4 m)-diameter radio telescope that could only point directly upwards; the next logical step was to build a telescope that could look at all parts of the sky so that more sources could be observed, as well as for longer integration times. Although the Transit Telescope had been designed and constructed by the astronomers that used it, a fully steerable telescope would need to be professionally designed and constructed; the first challenge was to find an engineer willing to do the job. This turned out to be Charles Husband
Charles Husband
Sir Henry Charles Husband was a leading architect and consulting engineer in Great Britain. His offices were based in Sheffield, England. He designed bridges and major civil engineering works and had a role in designing the Jodrell Bank radio telescope.- Biography :Husband was educated at King...
, whom Lovell first met on 8 September 1949.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
battleships HMS Revenge
HMS Revenge (06)
HMS Revenge was the lead ship of the Revenge class of battleships of the Royal Navy, the ninth to bear the name. She was launched during World War I in 1915. Though the class is often referred to as the Royal Sovereign class, official documents of 1914–1918 refer to the class as the Revenge class...
and Royal Sovereign
HMS Royal Sovereign (05)
HMS Royal Sovereign was a Revenge-class battleship of the Royal Navy displacing and armed with eight guns in four twin turrets...
, which were being broken up at the time. The bearings became the two main altitude rotator bearings of the telescope, with the appropriate parts of the telescope being designed around them. Husband presented the first drawings of the proposed giant, fully steerable radio telescope in 1950. After refinements, these plans were detailed in a "Blue Book", which was presented to the DSIR on 20 March 1951; the proposal was approved in March 1952.
Construction began on 3 September 1952. The foundations for the telescope were completed on 21 May 1953 after being sunk 90 ft (27.4 m) into the ground. it then took until Mid-March 1954 to get the double railway lines completed due to their required accuracy. The central pivot was delivered to the site on 11 May 1954, and the final bogie
Bogie
A bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics terms, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a railway carriage/car or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar...
in mid-April 1955.
Hydrogen line
The hydrogen line, 21 centimeter line or HI line refers to the electromagnetic radiation spectral line that is created by a change in the energy state of neutral hydrogen atoms. This electromagnetic radiation is at the precise frequency of 1420.40575177 MHz, which is equivalent to the vacuum...
, which was discovered in 1951. Also, in February 1954 Lovell and the Air Ministry
Air Ministry
The Air Ministry was a department of the British Government with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964...
met to see if funding could be made available for improving the accuracy of the dish so that it could be used on centimeter wavelengths, for research at these wavelengths for the Ministry as well as "other purposes". Although the funding was not ultimately made available from the Air Ministry, the planning process had already progressed too far and so this improvement was made anyway.
The telescope was constructed so that the bowl could be completely inverted. Originally, it was intended to use a movable tower at the base of the telescope to change the receivers at the focus. However, the movable tower was never built, due jointly to funding constraints and the fact that much of the receiver equipment was placed at the base of the telescope rather than at the focus. Instead, receivers were mounted on 50-foot (15-m) long steel tubes, which were then inserted by a winch into the top of the aerial tower while the bowl was inverted. The cables from the receivers then ran down the inside of this tube, which could then be connected when the telescope was pointed at the zenith
Zenith
The zenith is an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the imaginary celestial sphere. "Above" means in the vertical direction opposite to the apparent gravitational force at that location. The opposite direction, i.e...
. Associated receiver equipment could then be placed either in the small, swinging laboratory directly underneath the surface; in rooms at the tops of the two towers; at the base girders, or in the control building.
The telescope moved for the first time on 3 February 1957: by an inch. It was first moved azimuthally under power on 12 June 1957; the bowl was tilted under power for the first time on 20 June 1957. By the end of July the dish surface was completed, and first light was on 2 August 1957; the telescope did a drift scan across the Milky Way
Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky...
at 160 MHz, with the bowl at the zenith. The telescope was first controlled from the control room on 9 October 1957, by a purpose-built analogue computer.
There were large cost overruns with the telescope's construction, mainly due to the steeply rising cost of steel at the time the telescope was constructed. The original grant for the telescope's construction came jointly from the Nuffield Foundation
Nuffield Foundation
The Nuffield Foundation is a British charitable trust, established in 1943 by William Morris , the founder of the Morris Motor Company. Lord Nuffield wanted to contribute to improvements in society, including the expansion of education and the alleviation of disadvantage...
and the government; this amounted to £335,000. The government increased its share of the funding several times as the cost of the telescope rose; other money came from private donations. The final part of the debt from the construction of the telescope, £50,000, was paid off by Lord Nuffield and the Nuffield Foundation
Nuffield Foundation
The Nuffield Foundation is a British charitable trust, established in 1943 by William Morris , the founder of the Morris Motor Company. Lord Nuffield wanted to contribute to improvements in society, including the expansion of education and the alleviation of disadvantage...
on 25 May 1960 (partly due to the telescope's early, very public role in space probe tracking; see below), and Jodrell Bank observatory was renamed to the Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories. The final total cost for the telescope was £700,000.
Upgrade to Mark IA
Shortly after the telescope was originally completed, Lovell and Husband started contemplating the idea of upgrading the telescope so that it had a more accurate surface, and was controlled by a digital computer. Plans for this upgrade were created by Husband and Co., and were presented to Lovell in April 1964. Their plans became more urgent when fatigue cracks were discovered in the elevation drive system in September 1967. The telescope was only expected to have an operational lifespan of 10 years, and Husband had been warning about the decay of the telescope since 1963. The appearance of fatigue cracks was the first of these problems that threatened to stop the telescope working; had they been left in place, then the elevation system could have failed and perhaps jammed. The telescope was therefore repaired and upgraded to become the Mark IA; the £400,000 of funding to do this was announced on 8 July 1968 by the SRCScience and Engineering Research Council
The Science and Engineering Research Council used to be the UK agency in charge of publicly funded scientific and engineering research activities including astronomy, biotechnology and biological sciences, space research and particle physics...
to upgrade and repair the telescope to the Mark IA. The upgrade was carried out in three phases, phase 1 lasting between September 1968 and February 1969, phase 2 between September and November 1969 and phase 3 between August 1970 and November 1971.
The first phase saw the addition of an inner railway track, which was designed to take a third of the weight of the telescope. The outer railway track, which had been decaying and sinking over the previous years, was relaid in the second phase. Also, four bogie
Bogie
A bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics terms, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a railway carriage/car or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar...
s were added on the inner track, along with their steelwork, and the existing bogies on the outer track were overhauled.
The third phase saw the biggest changes; a new, more accurate bowl surface was constructed in front of the old surface, meaning that the telescope could be used on wavelengths as small as 6 cm, and the central "bicycle wheel" support was added. A new computer control system was also put in place (reusing the Ferranti
Ferranti
Ferranti or Ferranti International plc was a UK electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century from 1885 until it went bankrupt in 1993. Known primarily for defence electronics, the Company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but ceased trading in 1993.The...
Argus 104 computer from the Mark II
Mark II (radio telescope)
The Mark II is a radio telescope located at Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Goostrey, Cheshire, in the north-west of England. It was built on the site of the 218 ft Transit Telescope. Construction was completed in 1964...
); fatigue cracks in the cones connecting the bowl to the towers were repaired and the central antenna was lengthened and strengthened. Tragically, in January 1972 the hoist holding two engineers to the central antenna snapped, causing grave injuries to both engineers and resulting in the death of one of them.
The Mark IA upgrade was formally completed on 16 July 1974, when the telescope was handed back to the University. Due to increases in the cost of steel during the upgrade, the final amount for the upgrade was £664,793.07.
Later upgrades and repairs
On 2 January 1976, storms brought winds of around 90 mph (140 km/h) which almost destroyed the telescope. The towers bowed, and one of the bearings connecting the dish to the towers slipped. After an expensive repair, diagonal bracing girders were added to the towers to prevent this happening again.By the 1990s, the telescope surface was becoming badly corroded. In 2001-2003, the telescope was resurfaced, increasing its sensitivity at 5 GHz by a factor of five. A holographic profiling technique was used on the surface, meaning that the surface works optimally at wavelengths of 5 cm (compared to 18 cm on the old surface). A new drive system was installed, which provides a much higher pointing accuracy. The outer track was relaid, and the focal tower was strengthened so that it could support heavier receivers.
In 2007 the telescope needed a new wheel, as the old wheel had cracked; in 2008 another new tyre was needed after a second wheel cracked. These are the only two wheel changes needed since the telescope started operation in 1957.
The presence (as at 2010) of two breeding pairs of wild peregrine falcon
Peregrine Falcon
The Peregrine Falcon , also known as the Peregrine, and historically as the Duck Hawk in North America, is a widespread bird of prey in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-gray back, barred white underparts, and a black head and "moustache"...
s (nesting one in each of the telescope's two support towers) prevents the nuisance of pigeon infestation (by droppings fouling, and their body heat affecting sensitive instrument readings) that some other radio telescopes suffer from.
Statistics
| Mass of telescope: | 3200 t |
| Mass of bowl: | 1500 t |
| Diameter of bowl: | 76.2 m = 250 ft |
| Surface area of bowl: | 5270 m² = 1.3 acres |
| Collecting area of bowl: | 4560 m² = 1.127 acres |
| Height of elevation axis: | 50.5 m = 165.68 ft |
| Maximum height above ground: | 89.0 m = 292 ft |
| Radius of wheel girders: | 38.5 m = 126.31 ft |
| Outer diameter of railway track: | 107.5 m = 352.690 ft |
| Amount of paint for 3 coats of the bowl: | 5300 L |
| Azimuthal drive power | Two 50 horse power electric motors, one at the foot of each tower. |
| Maximum drive rates | 9 degrees per minute in azimuth 6 degrees a minute in elevation. |
Sputnik and artificial satellites
Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1 ) was the first artificial satellite to be put into Earth's orbit. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. The unanticipated announcement of Sputnik 1s success precipitated the Sputnik crisis in the United States and ignited the Space...
, the world's first artificial satellite. While the transmissions from Sputnik itself could easily be picked up by a household radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
, the Lovell Telescope was the only telescope capable of tracking Sputnik's booster rocket by radar; it first located it just before midnight on 12 October 1957. It also located Sputnik 2
Sputnik 2
Sputnik 2 , or Prosteyshiy Sputnik 2 ), was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit, on November 3, 1957, and the first to carry a living animal, a dog named Laika. Sputnik 2 was a 4-meter high cone-shaped capsule with a base diameter of 2 meters...
's carrier rocket at just after midnight on 16 November 1957.
The telescope also took part in some of the early work on satellite. In February and March 1963, the telescope transmitted signals via the moon and Echo II
Echo satellite
Project Echo was the first passive communications satellite experiment. Each of the two American spacecraft was a metalized balloon satellite acting as a passive reflector of microwave signals. Communication signals were bounced off of them from one point on Earth to another.-Echo 1:NASA's Echo 1...
, a NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
balloon satellite at 750 km (466 mi) altitude, to the Zimenki Observatory in the USSR. Some signals were also relayed from the USA to the USSR via Jodrell Bank.
The race to the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In terms of American space probes, the telescope tracked Pioneer 1
Pioneer 1
On October 11, 1958, Pioneer 1 became the first spacecraft launched by NASA, the newly formed space agency of the United States. The flight was the second and most successful of the three Thor-Able space probes.- Spacecraft design :...
from 11 to 13 November 1958, Pioneer 3
Pioneer 3
Pioneer 3 was a spin stabilized spacecraft launched at 05:45:12 UTC on 6 December 1958 by the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency in conjunction with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration...
in December 1958, and Pioneer 4
Pioneer 4
Pioneer 4 was a spin-stabilized spacecraft launched as part of the Pioneer program on a lunar flyby trajectory and into a heliocentric orbit making it the first U.S. probe to escape from the Earth's gravity. It carried a payload similar to Pioneer 3: a lunar radiation environment experiment using a...
in March 1959. The telescope tracked Pioneer 5
Pioneer 5
Pioneer 5 was a spin-stabilized space probe in the NASA Pioneer program used to investigate interplanetary space between the orbits of Earth and Venus. It was launched on March 11, 1960 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 17a at 13:00:00 UTC with an on-orbit dry mass of 43 kg...
between 11 March and 26 June 1960, and was also used to send commands to the probe, including the one to separate the probe from its carrier rocket and the ones to turn on the more powerful transmitter when the probe was 8 million miles (12.9 million km) away. It also received data from Pioneer 5, and was the only telescope in the world capable of doing so at the time. The last signal was picked up from the probe at a distance of 36.2 million kilometers on the 26 June 1960.
The telescope also tracked the Soviet moon probes, including Lunik II from 13 to 14 September 1959 as it hit the moon; this was proven by the telescope by measuring the effect of the moon's gravity on the probe, and Luna 3
Luna 3
The Soviet space probe Luna 3 of 1959 was the third space probe to be sent to the neighborhood of the Moon, and this mission was an early feat in the spaceborne exploration of outer space...
around 4 October 1959. Also, the telescope tracked Luna 9
Luna 9
Luna 9 was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna program. On February 3, 1966 the Luna 9 spacecraft was the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on any planetary body other than Earth and to transmit photographic data to Earth.The automatic lunar station that achieved the...
in February 1966, the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
. The telescope listened in on its facsimile
Fax
Fax , sometimes called telecopying, is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material , normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other output device...
transmission of photographs from the moon's surface. The photos were sent to the British press - the probe transmitted, likely intentionally to increase chances of reception, in the international format for image transmission by newswire - and published before the Soviets themselves had made the photos public.
The telescope tracked Luna 10
Luna 10
Luna 10 was a Luna program, robotic spacecraft mission, also called Lunik 10.The Luna 10 spacecraft was launched towards the Moon from an Earth orbiting platform on March 31, 1966. It was the first artificial satellite of the Moon...
, a Russian satellite put into orbit around the Moon, in April 1966, and Zond 5
Zond 5
Zond 5, a formal member of the Soviet Zond program and unmanned version of Soyuz 7K-L1 manned moon-flyby spacecraft, was launched from a Tyazheliy Sputnik in Earth parking orbit to make scientific studies during a lunar flyby and to return to Earth....
in September 1968, a Russian probe that was launched at the moon, around which it sling-shotted before returning to Earth. The telescope did not track Apollo 11
Apollo 11
In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...
, as it was tracking Luna 15
Luna 15
-External links:*...
in July 1969. However, a 50 ft (15.2 m) telescope at Jodrell Bank was used at the same time to track Apollo 11
Apollo 11
In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...
.
Venus probes
The telescope possibly detected signals from Venera 1Venera 1
On February 12, 1961, 00:34:36 UTC, was the first planetary probe launched to Venus by the Soviet Union. The Venus-1 Automatic Interplanetary Station, or Venera 1, was a 643.5 kg probe consisting of a cylindrical body 1.05 metres in diameter topped by a dome, totalling 2.035 metres...
, a Russian satellite en route to Venus, in 19–20 May 1961. However, it was not possible to confirm the origin of the signals. A few years later, in December 1962, the telescope tracked and received data from Mariner 2
Mariner 2
Mariner 2 , an American space probe to Venus, was the first space probe to conduct a successful planetary encounter . The first successful spacecraft in the NASA Mariner program, it was a simplified version of the Block I spacecraft of the Ranger program and an exact copy of Mariner 1...
. On 18 October 1967, the telescope received signals from, and tracked, Venera 4
Venera 4
Venera 4 ) was a probe in the Soviet Venera program for the exploration of Venus. Venera-4 was the first successful probe to perform in-place analysis of the environment of another planet. It was also the first probe to land on another planet...
, a Russian probe to Venus.
Mars probes
The telescope tracked Mars 1Mars 1
Mars 1, also known as 1962 Beta Nu 1, Mars 2MV-4 and Sputnik 23, was an automatic interplanetary station launched in the direction of Mars on November 1, 1962, the first of the Soviet Mars probe program, with the intent of flying by the planet at a distance of about 11,000 km...
in 1962-3, and Mars 2
Mars 2
The Mars program was a series of Mars unmanned landers and orbiters launched by the Soviet Union in the early 1970s.The Mars 2 and Mars 3 missions consisted of identical spacecraft, each with an orbiter and an attached lander; they were the first human artifacts to impact the surface of Mars...
and Mars 3
Mars 3
The Mars 3 was an unmanned space probe of the Mars program, a series of unmanned Mars landers and orbiters launched by the Soviet Union in the early 1970s....
in 1971 (amidst the upgrade of the telescope to the Mark IA). In more recent years, it has also searched for several lost Mars spacecraft, including NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's Mars Observer
Mars Observer
The Mars Observer spacecraft, also known as the Mars Geoscience/Climatology Orbiter, was a 1,018-kilogram robotic space probe launched by NASA on September 25, 1992 to study the Martian surface, atmosphere, climate and magnetic field...
spacecraft in 1993, Mars Polar Lander
Mars Polar Lander
The Mars Polar Lander, also referred to as the Mars Surveyor '98 Lander, was a 290-kilogram robotic spacecraft lander, launched by NASA on January 3, 1999, to study the soil and climate of Planum Australe, a region near the south pole on Mars, as part of the Mars Surveyor '98 mission...
in 2000,
and the Beagle 2
Beagle 2
Beagle 2 was an unsuccessful British landing spacecraft that formed part of the European Space Agency's 2003 Mars Express mission. All contact with it was lost upon its separation from the Mars Express six days before its scheduled entry into the atmosphere...
lander on Mars in 2003. However, it did not succeed in locating any of them.
ICBM watchdog
As a stopgap measure while RAF FylingdalesRAF Fylingdales
RAF Fylingdales is a Royal Air Force station on Snod Hill in the North York Moors, England. Its motto is "Vigilamus" . It is a radar base and part of the United States-controlled Ballistic Missile Early Warning System...
was being built, the telescope was on standby for "Project Verify" (also known by the codewords "Lothario" and "Changlin") between April 1962 and September 1963. During strategic alerts, a 'pulse transmitter, receiver and display equipment' could be connected to the telescope to scan known Russian launch sites for indications of launches of ICBMs and/or IRBMs. During the Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...
in October 1962, the telescope was discreetly turned towards the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
to provide a few minute's warning of any missiles that might have been launched.
Scientific observations
When the telescope was proposed, a series of objectives for the telescope's observations were set out. These included:- Surveys of galactic and extragalactic radio emission
- Observations of the sun
- Radar echoes from the planets
- Investigation of meteor detections
- Observations of the GegenscheinGegenscheinThe gegenschein is a faint brightening of the night sky in the region of the antisolar point.- Explanation :Like the zodiacal light, the gegenschein is sunlight reflected by interplanetary dust...
- Studies of the AuroraAurora (astronomy)An aurora is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere...
- Detections of radio reflections from cosmic rayCosmic rayCosmic rays are energetic charged subatomic particles, originating from outer space. They may produce secondary particles that penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and surface. The term ray is historical as cosmic rays were thought to be electromagnetic radiation...
ionization in the atmosphere
However, the actual observations made with the telescope differ from these original objectives, and are outlined in the following sections.
Solar system
In Autumn 1958, the telescope was used to bounce "Hellos" off the Moon for a demonstration in Lovell's third Reith LectureReith Lecture
The Reith Lectures is a series of annual radio lectures given by leading figures of the day, commissioned by the BBC and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service....
. The telescope was also used to receive messages bounced off the Moon (a "moonbounce
EME (communications)
Earth-Moon-Earth, also known as moon bounce, is a radio communications technique which relies on the propagation of radio waves from an Earth-based transmitter directed via reflection from the surface of the Moon back to an Earth-based receiver....
") as part of the 50th anniversary First Move festival. In April 1961, a radar echo from Venus was achieved using the telescope while the planet was at a close approach, confirming measurements of the distance of the planet made by American telescopes.
21cm Hydrogen line
The 21 cm Hydrogen line was discovered during the telescope's construction; the telescope was subsequently redesigned so that it could observe at that frequency. Using this line emission, hydrogen clouds both in the Milky Way galaxy and in other galaxies can be observed; for example, the telescope discovered a large cloud around the M81Messier 81
Messier 81 is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Due to its proximity to Earth, large size and active galactic nucleus Messier 81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa...
and M82
Messier 82
Messier 82 is the prototype nearby starburst galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major...
galaxies. The motion of these clouds either towards or away from us either redshift
Redshift
In physics , redshift happens when light seen coming from an object is proportionally increased in wavelength, or shifted to the red end of the spectrum...
s or blueshifts the line, allowing the velocity to the cloud to be measured. This provides a probe of the internal dynamics of galaxies, and can also provide a measurement of the rate of expansion
Metric expansion of space
The metric expansion of space is the increase of distance between distant parts of the universe with time. It is an intrinsic expansion—that is, it is defined by the relative separation of parts of the universe and not by motion "outward" into preexisting space...
of the universe.
Masers
In 1963, the telescope discovered OH emissions from star-forming regionsStar formation
Star formation is the process by which dense parts of molecular clouds collapse into a ball of plasma to form a star. As a branch of astronomy star formation includes the study of the interstellar medium and giant molecular clouds as precursors to the star formation process and the study of young...
and giant stars; the first astronomical maser
Maser
A maser is a device that produces coherent electromagnetic waves through amplification by stimulated emission. Historically, “maser” derives from the original, upper-case acronym MASER, which stands for "Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation"...
s. OH masers emit on four frequencies around 18 cm (7 in), which are easily observable on the telescope. As part of MERLIN
MERLIN
The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of STFC as a National Facility.The array consists of up to seven radio...
, the telescope is regularly used to construct maps of maser regions.
Pulsars
In 1968, the telescope observed the coordinates of the recently discovered pulsar
Pulsar
A pulsar is a highly magnetized, rotating neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation. The radiation can only be observed when the beam of emission is pointing towards the Earth. This is called the lighthouse effect and gives rise to the pulsed nature that gives pulsars their name...
, confirming its existence and investigating the dispersion measure. It was also used to make the first detection of polarization of the pulsar's radiation. This marked the start of a substantial amount of work investigating pulsars at Jodrell, which is still ongoing. In the 30 years following the discovery of pulsars, the telescope discovered over 100 new pulsars (and astronomers at Jodrell Bank discovered around 2/3 of the total number using the Lovell and other telescopes). 300 pulsars are regularly observed using either the Lovell, or a nearby 42-foot (13-m) dish.
The telescope was involved in the discovery of millisecond pulsars, and also discovered the first pulsar in a globular cluster in 1986—a millisecond pulsar in the Messier 28
Messier 28
Messier 28 is a globular cluster in the constellation Sagittarius. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764. In the sky it is very close to the 3rd magnitude star Kaus Borealis....
globular cluster. In September 2006, the results of three years of observing a double pulsar, PSR J0737-3039
PSR J0737-3039
|- style="vertical-align: top;"| Distance | 1600 - 2000 Ly PSR J0737-3039 is currently the only known double pulsar, it consists of two neutron stars emitting electromagnetic waves in the radio wavelength in a relativistic binary system. The two Pulsars are known as PSR J0737-3039A and PSR...
, with the Lovell telescope, as well as with the Parkes
Parkes Observatory
The Parkes Observatory is a radio telescope observatory, 20 kilometres north of the town of Parkes, New South Wales, Australia. It was one of several radio antennas used to receive live, televised images of the Apollo 11 moon landing on 20 July 1969....
and Green Bank Telescope
Green Bank Telescope
The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope is the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope and the world's largest land-based movable structure. It is part of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory site at Green Bank, West Virginia, USA. The telescope honors the name of the late Senator...
s, were announced — confirming that the general theory of relativity is accurate to 99.5%.
Gravitational lensing
Between 1972 and 1973, the telescope was used for "a detailed survey of the radio sources in a limited area of the sky … up to the sensitivity limit of the instrument". Among the objects catalogued was the first gravitational lens
Gravitational lens
A gravitational lens refers to a distribution of matter between a distant source and an observer, that is capable of bending the light from the source, as it travels towards the observer...
, which was confirmed optically in 1979 after its position was found to coincide with a pair of faint blue stars by using the Mark I as an interferometer with the Mark II
Mark II (radio telescope)
The Mark II is a radio telescope located at Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Goostrey, Cheshire, in the north-west of England. It was built on the site of the 218 ft Transit Telescope. Construction was completed in 1964...
. The telescope was also involved in the detection of the first Einstein ring
Einstein ring
In observational astronomy an Einstein ring is the deformation of the light from a source into a ring through gravitational lensing of the source's light by an object with an extremely large mass . This occurs when the source, lens and observer are all aligned...
in 1998, in conjunction with observations made with the Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...
.
Quasars and Interferometry
The early investigation into the size and nature of quasarQuasar
A quasi-stellar radio source is a very energetic and distant active galactic nucleus. Quasars are extremely luminous and were first identified as being high redshift sources of electromagnetic energy, including radio waves and visible light, that were point-like, similar to stars, rather than...
s drove the development of interferometry techniques in the 1950s; the Lovell telescope had an advantage due to its large collecting area, meaning that high sensitivity interferometer measurements can be made relatively quickly using it. As a result, the telescope featured heavily in the discovery of quasar
Quasar
A quasi-stellar radio source is a very energetic and distant active galactic nucleus. Quasars are extremely luminous and were first identified as being high redshift sources of electromagnetic energy, including radio waves and visible light, that were point-like, similar to stars, rather than...
s.
Interferometry at Jodrell Bank started before the Lovell telescope was constructed, using the Transit Telescope with a 35 square meter broadside array to determine the size of radio-loud nebula
Nebula
A nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas, helium gas and other ionized gases...
e. Once construction of the Lovell telescope was complete, the broadside array was put on a steerable mount and the pair were used as a tracking radio interferometer. This was then used to determine the 2D shape of quasars on the sky.Rowson (1963) In the summer of 1961, a 25-foot (8-m) diameter parabaloid telescope was constructed (it was made of aluminium tubing and was mounted on the rotating structure of an old defence radar). This was then used as a steerable interferometer with the Mark I, with a resolution of 0.3 arcseconds, to determine the sizes of some high-redshift (z~0.86) quasars.
The Mark II
Mark II (radio telescope)
The Mark II is a radio telescope located at Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Goostrey, Cheshire, in the north-west of England. It was built on the site of the 218 ft Transit Telescope. Construction was completed in 1964...
telescope once constructed was also used as an interferometer with the Lovell telescope. This has a baseline of 425 m (1,394 ft) (meaning that it can synthesize a telescope with 425 m diameter), giving it a resolution of around 0.5 arcminutes. This telescope pair has been used to carry out survey work, and to determine the positions of faint radio objects. Also, one of the drivers behind the construction of the Mark III
Mark III
Mark III or Mark 3 often refers to the third version of a product, frequently military hardware. "Mark", meaning "model" or "variant", can be abbreviated "Mk."Mark III or Mark 3 can specifically refer to:-In military and weaponry:...
was to use it as an interferometer with the Mark I to carry out a survey of radio sources.
The telescope took part in the first transatlantic interferometer experiment in 1968, with other telescopes being those at Algonquin
Algonquin Radio Observatory
The Algonquin Radio Observatory is a radio telescope research facility located in the Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada. The site's primary instrument is a major 46 m parabolic-dish radio antenna. This instrument is historically famous for taking part in the first successful very...
and Penticton in Canada. It was first used as an interferometer with the Arecibo
Arecibo
Arecibo may refer to:*Arecibo, Puerto Rico, a municipality located by the Atlantic Ocean*Arecibo Observatory, a very sensitive radio telescope located approximately south-southwest from the city of Arecibo...
radio telescope in 1969.
In 1980, it was used as part of the new MERLIN
MERLIN
The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of STFC as a National Facility.The array consists of up to seven radio...
array with a series of smaller radio telescopes controlled from Jodrell Bank. With baselines of up to 217 km (135 mi), this gave a resolution around 0.05 arcminutes. An upgraded version of this became a national facility in 1992. It has also been used in Very Long Baseline Interferometry
Very Long Baseline Interferometry
Very Long Baseline Interferometry is a type of astronomical interferometry used in radio astronomy. It allows observations of an object that are made simultaneously by many telescopes to be combined, emulating a telescope with a size equal to the maximum separation between the telescopes.Data...
, with telescopes across Europe (the European VLBI Network
European VLBI Network
The European VLBI Network was formed in 1980 by a consortium of five of the major radio astronomy institutes in Europe . Since 1980, the EVN and the Consortium has grown to include 9 institutes with 12 radio telescopes in 8 western European countries as well as associated institutes with...
), giving a resolution of around 0.001 arcseconds. Around half of the telescope's observing time is now spent doing interferometry with other telescopes. It is planned that the telescope will work as part of an interferometer with the Radioastron (Russian) and VLBI Space Observatory Programme (Japanese) orbital radio satellites, providing yet larger baselines and higher resolutions.
Other notable observations
The telescope was used as a follow-up instrument for possible SETISETI
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence is the collective name for a number of activities people undertake to search for intelligent extraterrestrial life. Some of the most well known projects are run by the SETI Institute. SETI projects use scientific methods to search for intelligent life...
detections made at Arecibo
Arecibo
Arecibo may refer to:*Arecibo, Puerto Rico, a municipality located by the Atlantic Ocean*Arecibo Observatory, a very sensitive radio telescope located approximately south-southwest from the city of Arecibo...
between 1998 and the end of 2003. No signals were detected. In February 2005, astronomers using the Lovell Telescope discovered the galaxy VIRGOHI21
VIRGOHI21
VIRGOHI21 is an extended region of neutral hydrogen in the Virgo cluster discovered in 2005. Analysis of its internal motion indicates that it may contain a large amount of dark matter, as much as a small galaxy. Since VIRGOHI21 apparently contains no stars, this would make it one of the first...
that appears to be made almost entirely of dark matter
Dark matter
In astronomy and cosmology, dark matter is matter that neither emits nor scatters light or other electromagnetic radiation, and so cannot be directly detected via optical or radio astronomy...
.
Popular culture
- A 1:200 scale model of the telescope, made in 1961, resides in the Science MuseumScience museumA science museum or a science centre is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in museology have broadened the range of...
, LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. - In 1962, the telescope was mentioned in a sci-fi novel A for AndromedaA for AndromedaA for Andromeda is a British television science fiction drama serial first made and broadcast by the BBC in seven parts in 1961. Written by the noted cosmologist Fred Hoyle, in conjunction with author and television producer John Elliot, it concerns a group of scientists who detect a radio signal...
, by Fred HoyleFred HoyleSir Fred Hoyle FRS was an English astronomer and mathematician noted primarily for his contribution to the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis and his often controversial stance on other cosmological and scientific matters—in particular his rejection of the "Big Bang" theory, a term originally...
and John ElliotJohn Elliot (author)John Herbert Elliot was a British novelist, screenwriter and television producer. Between 1954 and 1960 he scripted a succession of one-off television plays including War in the Air and A Man from the Sun...
. - Actress Sophie AldredSophie AldredSophie Aldred is an English actress and television presenter, best known for her portrayal of The Doctor's companion Ace in the television series Doctor Who during the late 1980s.-Early life:...
portrayed the Seventh DoctorSeventh DoctorThe Seventh Doctor is the seventh incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor Sylvester McCoy....
's companionCompanion (Doctor Who)In the long-running BBC television science fiction programme Doctor Who and related works, the term "companion" refers to a character who travels with, and shares the adventures of the Doctor. In most Doctor Who stories, the primary companion acts as both deuteragonist and audience surrogate...
Ace McShaneAce (Doctor Who)Dorothy Gale McShane, better known by her nickname Ace, is a fictional character played by Sophie Aldred in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
, standing on both the superstructure and dish in the 1990 Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
educational special, "Search Out Science: Search Out Space". - In 1992, the telescope was featured on the cover of Sub SubSub SubSub Sub were an English dance act from Wilmslow, Cheshire composed of Jimi Goodwin and twin brothers Andy and Jez Williams.The threesome met at school in 1985 and became regulars at The Haçienda while composing their own material together...
's "Space Face" single. - The telescope also made a brief appearance in the film versionThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (film)The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a 2005 comic science fiction film based on the book of the same name by Douglas Adams. Shooting was completed in August 2004 and the movie was released on April 28, 2005 in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and on the following day in Canada and the United...
of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...
in 2005. - Two bands have shot music videos in the bowl of the telescope: D:ReamD:ReamD:Ream was a UK pop and dance band of the 1990s. They had a UK Number One hit with "Things Can Only Get Better" in 1994 as well as eight more top 40 hits. They released two albums, both of which reached the top five...
in 1995 (Party Up the World) and PlaceboPlacebo (band)Placebo are a British rock band from London, England, formed in 1994 by singer and guitarist Brian Molko and bass guitarist Stefan Olsdal. The band was joined by drummer Robert Schultzberg, who was later replaced by Steve Hewitt after conflicts with Molko. Hewitt left the band in October 2007 and...
in 2003 (The Bitter EndThe Bitter End (song)"The Bitter End" is a single by British alternative rock band Placebo from their fourth studio album, Sleeping with Ghosts, released in 2003.The song is based around the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell...
). - The Royal MailRoyal MailRoyal Mail is the government-owned postal service in the United Kingdom. Royal Mail Holdings plc owns Royal Mail Group Limited, which in turn operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide...
choose to depict the telescope as J for Jodrell Bank in their alphabetical landmarks stamp series; it has also previously featured on stamps from HaitiHaitiHaiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
, HungaryHungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Ascension IslandAscension IslandAscension Island is an isolated volcanic island in the equatorial waters of the South Atlantic Ocean, around from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America, which is roughly midway between the horn of South America and Africa...
, BarbudaBarbudaBarbuda is an island in the Eastern Caribbean, and forms part of the state of Antigua and Barbuda. It has a population of about 1,500, most of whom live in the town of Codrington.-Location:...
, LiechtensteinLiechtensteinThe Principality of Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked alpine country in Central Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over , and it has an estimated population of 35,000. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan...
and TanzaniaTanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
.
External links
- The Lovell Telescope website
- '50 Years of the Lovell Telescope', lecture by Professor Ian Morison given at Gresham CollegeGresham CollegeGresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in central London, England. It was founded in 1597 under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham and today it hosts over 140 free public lectures every year within the City of London.-History:Sir Thomas Gresham,...
, 5 December 2007 (available for free audio, video and text download).