Timeline of Jodrell Bank Observatory

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This is a Timeline of Jodrell Bank Observatory.

1939 - Jodrell Bank site purchased by the University of Manchester.

Observations at Jodrell Bank in 1945. Credit: Jodrell Bank.

1945 - Bernard Lovell arrives at Jodrell Bank, Cheshire, with several trailers of radar equipment from WW2.^[1]
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.

The Mark 1 under construction. Credit: Jodrell Bank.

1957 - The 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.
1962 - Jodrell Bank radio telescope is mentioned in a sci-fi novel A for Andromeda, by Fred Hoyle and John Elliot.
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.
1966 - The Mark III telescope is completed.
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 repaired and 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.
1982 - The 42ft telescope is built, to replace the 50ft
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 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.
1998 - The Lovell Telescope begins participation with the SETI Project Phoenix
2000 - February - The Lovell Telescope searches for NASA's Mars Polar Lander
2000 - Placebo recorded the video for 'The Bitter End' at Jodrell Bank.

The Lovell telescope mid-resurfacing. Credit: Jodrell Bank.

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.
2006 - September - Jodrell Bank wins the BBC's online competition to find the UK's greatest 'Unsung Landmark' [1].