This is a timeline of Jodrell Bank Observatory.
1930s 1939 — Jodrell Bank site purchased by the University of Manchester as a botany field station.
1940s
1945, December — Bernard Lovell arrives at Jodrell Bank with several trailers of radar equipment from World War II. 1947 — The 66 meter Transit Telescope is constructed.
1950s
1950, August — 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 the proposed giant, fully steerable radio telescope. 1952, September — Construction of the Mark I telescope begins. 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.
1960s 1960, May — 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 the science fiction 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. 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. 1969 — The Mark I is used for the first time in a VLBI observation, with the Arecibo radio telescope in 1969.
1970s 1970–1971 — The Mark I is repaired and upgraded; it is renamed to the Mark IA. 1972–1973 — The Mark I carries out a survey of radio sources; amongst these sources was the first gravitational lens, which was confirmed optically in 1979. 1976, January — storms bring winds of around 90 mph which almost destroy the telescope. Bracing girders are added.
1980s 1980 — The Mark IA is used as part of the new MERLIN array. 1982 — The 42 ft telescope is built, to replace the 50 ft. 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.
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. 1998 — The Lovell Telescope begins participation with the SETI Project Phoenix
2000s
2000, February — The Lovell Telescope searches for NASA's Mars Polar Lander. 2000 — Placebo recorded the video for The Bitter End at Jodrell Bank. 2000–2002 — 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 U.S. 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".
2010s 2011, March — Jodrell Bank is included on the UK Tentative List for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site 2019, July — The observatory becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
References
Books Lovell, Bernard (1968). Story of Jodrell Bank. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-217619-6. Lovell, Bernard (1973). Out of the Zenith: Jodrell Bank, 1957-70. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-217624-2. Lovell, Bernard (1985). The Jodrell Bank Telescopes. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-858178-5. Lovell, Bernard (1990). Astronomer by Chance. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-55195-8.