Documentary Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope

[theoldsmithy]

The famous radio telescope dish of Jodrell Bank has been a landmark of the Cheshire countryside for 67 years. I last visited it about 28 years ago, since when a lot of money has been spent on the 'discovery centre' which explains the history of the dish and what it is used for. But the chief attraction remains the dish itself (actually the largest of a group of 5 or 6 dishes), which is absolutely MASSIVE. Just thinking about the process of building it made me feel dizzy.
Anyway, enough chat, here are some pics. More in the black and white forums.

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[Panolyman]

Nice work Martin.
I only visited it once, many, many years ago and despite all the technology on show, the thing I remember most was that they had started an arboretum.
I took great joy in the newly planted trees, and it would be interesting to see if they've grown anywhere near as tall as the telescopes.

 

[theoldsmithy]

Nice work Martin.
I only visited it once, many, many years ago and despite all the technology on show, the thing I remember most was that they had started an arboretum.
I took great joy in the newly planted trees, and it would be interesting to see if they've grown anywhere near as tall as the telescopes.

There is still an arboretum, which I didn't get round to visiting this week. I have been there in the past, when the trees were really still quite small. There is a much more established arboretum nearby in the village of Swettenham which was created in the 50s by Bernard Lovell (the man behind the buidling of the telescopes).

 

[Richard]

... the chief attraction remains the dish itself (actually the largest of a group of 5 or 6 dishes), which is absolutely MASSIVE.

Apparently, it's still the world's third-largest steerable dish radio telescope (the Green Bank telescope in West Virginia and the Effelsberg telescope in Germany being nos. 1 and 2 respectively).

-R