Timeline of Jodrell Bank Observatory

This is a Timeline of Jodrell Bank Observatory.

1930s

* 1939 – Jodrell Bank site purchased by the University of Manchester as a botany field station. [ [http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/public/story/early.html History on U of manchester web site, accessed 24/10/2007] ]

1940s

* 1945 – December — Bernard Lovell arrives at Jodrell Bank with several trailers of radar equipment from World War II.Story of Jodrell Bank, p. 3]
* 1947 – The 66 m Transit Telescope is constructed.cite web | url=http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/public/story/early.html | title=Jodrell Bank Observatory - The Early History | accessdate=2007-06-10] Story of Jodrell Bank, p. 17]

1950s

* 1950 – August – The transit telescope is used to make the first detection of radio waves from the nearby Andromeda Galaxy.Out of the Zenith, p. 7] Astronomer by Chance, p. 175]
* 1950 – Charles Husband presents first drawings of the proposed giant, fully-steerable radio telescope.Lovell, "Story of Jodrell Bank", p. 35]
* 1952 – September – Construction of the Mark I telescope begins.Lovell, "Story of Jodrell Bank", p. 44]
* 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.Lovell, "Story of Jodrell Bank", p. 196] Lovell, "Astronomer by Chance", p. 262]

1960s

* 1960 – May – Lord Nuffield pays the remaining debt on the Mark I and the observatory is renamed the Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories. [Story of Jodrell Bank, p. 244]
* 1962 – As part of a radio-linked interferometer, the Mark I identifies a new class of compact radio sources, later recognised as quasars.
* 1962 – Jodrell Bank radio telescope is mentioned in the Science Fiction novel A for Andromeda by Fred Hoyle and John Elliot.Fact|date=June 2007
* 1964 – The Mark II telescope is completed.cite web | url=http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/public/story/mk2.html | title=The MKII Radio Telescope | publisher = Jodrell Bank Observatory | accessdate=2007-06-01]
* 1966 – The Mark I receives pictures from Luna 9, the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon. [Lovell, "Story of Jodrell Bank", p. 250
cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/3/newsid_4063000/4063471.stm | title=On This Day - 3 February 1966: Soviets land probe on Moon | publisher=BBC News | accessdate=2007-04-09
cite news | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,842468,00.html | title=The Lunar Landscape | publisher=Time Magazine | date=11 February 1966 | accessdate=2007-04-07]
* 1966 – The Mark III telescope is completed.
* 1968 – The Mark I confirms the existence of pulsars.Lovell, "Out of the Zenith", pp. 130-135]
* 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.Lovell, "Out of the Zenith", pp. 67-68]
* 1969 – The Mark I is used for the first time in a VLBI observation, with the Arecibo radio telescope in 1969.cite web | url=http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/tech/lovell/mile.html | title=JBO - Milestones | accessdate=2007-05-28]

1970s

* 1970/1 – The Mark I is repaired and upgraded; it is renamed to the Mark IA.Lovell, "The Jodrell Bank Telescopes"]
* 1972/3 – The Mark I carries out a survey of radio sources; amongst these sources was the first gravitational lens, which was confirmed optically in 1979.Lovell, "Astronomer by Chance", pp. 297-301]
* 1976 – January – storms bring winds of around 90 mph which almost destroy the telescope. Bracing girders are added.cite web | title=The MKIA Radio Telescope | url=http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/public/story/mk1a.html | publisher=Jodrell Bank Observatory | accessdate=2006-11-21]

1980s

* 1980 – The Mark IA is used as part of the new MERLIN array.
* 1982 – The 42ft telescope is built, to replace the 50ft.Fact|date=June 2007
* 1986 – The first pulsar in a globular cluster is discovered.
* 1986 – The Mark II telescope is given a new surface that is accurate to 1/3 mm.
* 1987 – The Mark IA is renamed the Lovell Telescope after Bernard Lovell.cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2981167.stm | title=Lovell Radio Telescope refurbished | publisher=BBC News | date=28 April 2003 | accessdate=2007-04-05]

1990s

* 1990 – The new 32 m Cambridge telescope at Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory 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.cite news | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5314172.stm | title = Aye to the telescope| author=Finlo Rohrer | publisher = BBC News | date = 5 September, 2006]
* 1998 – The Lovell Telescope begins participation with the SETI Project Phoenixcite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/52489.stm | title=Scientists listen intently for ET | publisher=BBC News | date=1 February 1998 | accessdate=2007-04-09] cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/300916.stm | title=Alien hunters back on track | publisher=BBC News | date=23 March 1999 | accessdate=2007-04-09]

2000s

* 2000 – February – The Lovell Telescope searches for NASA's Mars Polar Lander. [cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/626952.stm | title=Earth turns its ears to Mars | publisher=BBC News | date=2 October 2000 | accessdate=2007-04-09
cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/629443.stm | title=Quiet please, we're listening to Mars | publisher=BBC News | date=3 February 2000 | accessdate=2007-04-05
cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/635229.stm | title=Mars lander search goes on | publisher=BBC News | date=8 February 2000 | accessdate=2007-04-05]
* 2000 – Placebo recorded the video for 'The Bitter End' at Jodrell Bank.Fact|date=June 2007
* 2000/2 – The Lovell Telescope is resurfaced, increasing its sensitivity at 5 GHz by a factor of five.Fact|date=June 2007
* 2003 – December – The Lovell Telescope searches for the Beagle 2 lander on Mars.Fact|date=June 2007
* 2004 – January – Astronomers from Jodrell Bank, Australia, Italy and the US discover the first known double pulsar.Fact|date=June 2007
* 2004 – Minor scenes for the film of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are filmed at Jodrell Bank.Fact|date=June 2007
* 2005 – February – Astronomers using the Lovell Telescope discovered a galaxy that appears to be made almost entirely of dark matter.cite web | url=http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/news/darkgalaxy/ | title=Seeing the invisible - first dark galaxy discovered? | publisher=Jodrell Bank Observatory press release | date=23 February 2005 | accessdate=2007-05-29]
* 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. [cite web | url=http://www.spacedout-uk.com/solar_system/solar_info.asp?site_id=2 | title=SpacedOut Location: The Sun at Jodrell Bank | accessdate=2007-06-08]
* 2006 – September – Jodrell Bank wins the BBC's online competition to find the UK's greatest 'Unsung Landmark'. [cite news | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5314172.stm | title = Aye to the telescope| author=Finlo Rohrer | publisher = BBC News | date = 5 September, 2006]

References

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